OCCUPATIONAL REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH HAZARDS AMONG UNIVERSITY WORKING FEMALES

Abstract

Introduction: Women constitute nearly 22% of Saudi Arabia’s workforce where they may be exposed to workplace hazards. The risk factors for reproductive problems could be due to occupational or environmental factors. Aim of Work: This study aimed to determine reproductive health problems, investigate potential occupational reproductive health hazards, work-related factors, and measure the effectiveness of reproductive health education in improving female employee’s knowledge and attitude toward occupational reproductive hazards. Materials and Methods: A pre-post interventional study was conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire that included a workplace screening tool for reproductive hazards, and questions for assessment the reproductive health of the participants. A cluster sampling technique was used and all the female employees involved in the randomly selected clusters were invited to participate in the study. Results: Ergonomic factors were the highest reproductive health hazards followed by psychological, chemical, physical, and biological agents (66%, 52.3%, 45.1%, 30.0%, and 10.0%, respectively). About 40.4% of the studied group reported a problem in conceiving a child, and 38% had a history of miscarriage, preterm, stillbirth, or deformed offspring. Miscarriage was the highest reported abnormal obstetric outcome among married participants (22.5%). Conclusion: Ergonomic and psychological hazards were the highest reported ones affecting the reproductive health of participants. Significant associations have been observed between workplace factors and both history of treatment of infertility, and time of pregnancy longer than one year. A significant change Zalat MM1,and Abdallah AR 124