Occupational Medicine & Health Affairs
Open Access

Abstract

Background: In recent years, Latin-American countries and other countries worldwide have been conducting surveys on working conditions and occupational health. Collecting relevant information to formulate public policy and to set lines of priority on scientific research in this field has been done. In the case of Ecuador, there is no survey focused on this subject, except for the Survey of Living Conditions (ECV), aimed at studying the economic impact and the living conditions of the Ecuadorian Population and the National Survey of Health and Nutrition (ENSANUT), from a public health perspective. Objective: The School of Labor and Human Behavior Sciences of SEK International University - Ecuador--as a university committed to research, has designed a survey based on the conditions of Occupational Safety and Health--Ecuador (CSSO-E), with the aim to propose a model for gathering information to know the occupational risk factors present in the workplace and their impact on the health of the Ecuadorian working population. Method: The survey was design, in collaboration with other universities of Ecuador and Colombia, and professional experts of private companies, was designed following the standards and recommendations of European, Spanish and Latin American surveys, documentary research and exhaustive bibliographic reviews of others works, in order to fit it to the Ecuadorian national context, and in the future to allow comparison of its results with other international surveys. Results: The construction and design of the questionnaire was carried out in different phases. By consensus, the group of university experts determined seven dimensions: sociodemographic and labor, conditions of employment, occupational safety, industrial hygiene, ergonomics, psychosocial and occupational health. It was also divided up into 24 sub-dimensions: personal protective equipment, physical and chemical hazard, manual handling, repetitive movements, psychosocial intra and extra-occupational factors, occupational accidents, occupational diseases, etc. Finally, 67 variables (questions) related with worker-perception of occupational risk factors and health hazards. Conclusions: The present survey model on safety and occupational health aims to contribute modestly to other studies and surveys conducted in Latin America and its results can be compared with others internationally. Key words: survey, instrument, working conditions, occupational health, Ecuador.

Biography

Doctor en Prevención de Riesgos Laborales - Sobresaliente Cum Laude - por la Universidad de Málaga (UMA), Maestrías en Seguridad en el Trabajo, Higiene Industrial, Ergonomía y Psicosociología. En la actualidad es profesor-investigador de la Facultad de Ciencias del Trabajo y Comportamiento Humano de la Universidad Internacional SEK, autor de diferentes artículos de investigación en revistas indexadas, ponente en jornadas, seminarios y congresos, tanto nacionales como internacionales.

Email: antonio.gomez@uisek.edu.ec