[Work disability in certain occupations among workers in the electronics industry]

Abstract

Occupational and working environment factors have always occupied an important place in studies on sickness absenteeism. The study performed during the years 1987-1988 in two electronic industry plants involved such elements of the working environment as the place of a worker in the production process and the occupation performed. Our analysis was aimed at indicating differences in the temporary work disability, in particular due to some groups of diseases, between occupations essential for the manufacturing process. The frequency of sickness absenteeism in general and due to main groups of diseases expressed in terms of percentage of sick persons with temporary work disability was analysed. The Chi 2 test was used to determine the relationship between individual groups. The analysis of sickness absenteeism in individual groups was performed according to sex and age. The analysis allowed to indicate groups of workers with increased risk of sickness absenteeism in the plants under study. They are mostly workers involved in the basic production and in chemical processes. Sickness absenteeism of those workers was higher than the average by 26% in Plant I and by 33% in Plant II. The highest sickness absenteeism rate for that group was due to diseases of the nervous system--71%; the gastrointestinal system--46%; and the musculo-skeletal system--81%. The relationship between the occurrence of sickness absenteeism and the type of activity was statistically significant (p < 0.05) in both Plants but in relation to selected groups of occupation it was significant only in Plant I.