Occupational Respiratory Diseases of Miners from Two Gold Mines in Ghana

Esther Ayaaba, Yan Li, Jiali Yuan and Chunhui Ni
Additional contact information
Esther Ayaaba: Department of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210000, China
Yan Li: Department of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210000, China
Jiali Yuan: Department of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210000, China
Chunhui Ni: Department of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210000, China

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: Objective : This study investigated respiratory disorders among gold miners in Ghana, a sub-Saharan African country. Material and Methods : A cross-sectional exploratory design that employed quantitative methods was conducted among 1001 male workers from the Obuasi and Tarkwa mines from December 2015 to April 2016. A total of 1001 workers, consisting of 505 and 496 underground and surface miners, respectively, were involved. The cross-sectional descriptive design was used because data was collected from participants of different experiences by selected participants at a time. Results: The study found significant association between age, educational background, marital status and drinking alcohol on respiratory disorders. The prevalence of asthma, pneumonia, bronchitis and emphysema were respectively 47.55%, 14.29%, 9.69% and 5.10%. Coughing was the most cited respiratory symptom (35.4%). Conclusions : The study documents important evidence on the level of respiratory disorders among miners in Ghana. Instituting appropriate health education interventions and improving the working environment is critical to improving the overall health and preventing respiratory disorders among miners.

Keywords: gold miners; respiratory disorders; asthma; emphysema; bronchitis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/3/337/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/3/337/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:3:p:337-:d:93803

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().