scholarly journals Victimizations and surviving of workplace violence against waitresses in southern Ethiopia

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0261883
Author(s):  
Bewunetu Zewude ◽  
Tewodros Habtegiorgis

Women are obliged to take on vulnerable forms of employment that fail to protect their basic labor rights. Exposure to workplace violence is especially high for those women who work within the agriculture, the hotels, restaurants and catering, the transport as well as the manufacturing sectors. In this context, we explored workplace violence against women working as waitresses in various hotels, restaurants, cafeterias and grocery stores of Wolaita Sodo town, southern Ethiopia. Cross-sectional study was undertaken with descriptive and exploratory study designs. Qualitative data were collected by using in-depth interview method in which 16 waitresses were interviewed. Data were voice recorded, transcribed, and analyzed searching themes and patterns in the data. While we found that waitresses are highly exposed to workplace violence, the level of exposure to the violence varies across various circumstances, including working in large and small towns, the situation of the owners/supervisors, public’s insight of the position, waitresses’ ability to speak the local language, the role of the waitresses, customers’ behavior and the specific context in which waitresses work. Waitresses were generally exposed to all forms of violence including spitting, throwing objects, simple physical assault, touching on private parts, and intimidation, among which verbal abuse and emotional exploitations are found to be the most common. Furthermore, the results revealed that though waitresses rarely experienced violence from female customers, the most common perpetrators involved in the practice were males. Amid widespread exposure of waitresses to all forms of workplace violence, ignorance, mostly motivated by fear of losing one’s job, has been the common way waitresses respond to the violence. The study implies the vulnerability state of waitresses partly due to lack of adequate awareness regarding the rights and obligations expected of an employee when working in such organizations. This is again exacerbated by the lack of formal employment procedures in such organizations. Therefore, awareness creation and supervisory activities are expected from the media, workers’ and social security office of the government, police and other concerned bodies.

Author(s):  
Ananthi Kasinathan ◽  
Himabindu Nagulapally

Background: Knowledge and access to contraception is the basic right of every woman. This is one of the goals of National family planning programme. This study gauges the knowledge of antenatal women about temporary contraceptive methods available in our outpatient department and their attitude towards its practice.Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study carried out at Indira Gandhi medical college and research institute, Puducherry, between March 2019 to May 2019. 270 pregnant women were chosen and with their consent, using a predesigned questionnaire, their awareness regarding contraception was assessed. Then each participant was counselled regarding the various methods and their attitude towards choosing a temporary contraceptive method was assessed using a questionnaire. The data was entered in SPSS software and analyzed.Results: In this study, 88.8% belonged to 20-30 years, 77% had received school education and 80.3% were home makers. 72.9% were primigravidas. 55.8% of primis and 95.8% of multis knew about spacing. In primis, 67.5% knew about IUCDs. In multis, 95.8% knew about condoms. Knowledge of depo provera was poor. The most preferred contraceptive was condom followed by CuT and pills.Conclusions: This study shows that it is important to create awareness about temporary contraceptive methods and its free availability in the hospitals. Further pregnant women need to be given more information about oral pills, emergency and injectable contraceptive methods. The Government has to work in unison with hospitals and its staff along with the media to achieve this goal.


Author(s):  
Muna Mohamed Elamin ◽  
Salih Boushra Hamza ◽  
Khabab Abbasher ◽  
Khalid Elsir Idris ◽  
Yassin Abdelrahim Abdallah ◽  
...  

Background: Workplace violence against healthcare workers and especially doctors are now clearly taken as a rapidly rising health problem in Sudan with great political and legal concerns. The current study was aimed at exploring the prevalence of verbal and physical workplace violence, the major factors associated with it, and its consequences reported by medical staff in Khartoum, Sudan government hospitals in 2020. Methods: This cross-sectional study utilized self-administered questionnaires to collect data on aspects of workplace violence against doctors working in the government hospitals of Khartoum, Sudan. A nine-item self-reported workplace violence scale was used. An online survey of self-reported work-related violence exposure during the preceding 12 months was sent to conveniently selected doctors. In total, 387 doctors completed the questionnaire in 2020. Data were analyzed using the SPSS version 26. Results: One hundred and ninety five (50%) respondents reported they were victims of violence in the previous 12 months; 92% of them experienced nonphysical violence; while female doctors were more likely to experience this type of violence (67%), younger respondents <30 years of age were more likely to encounter violent episodes. Results show an association between exposure to physical violence and working at an emergency department. The assailants were mostly males in the age group of 19–35 years (70.2%), most of them were under no influence (60.8%). Conclusion: Approximately one in every two doctors had experienced some degree of violence, either physical or nonphysical or both, and it was negatively reflected on their psychological status as well as their work performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bewunetu Zewude ◽  
Belayneh Melese ◽  
Tewodros Habtegiorgis ◽  
Mihret Tadele ◽  
Weynishet Solomon

Regardless of the advocacies made by the media and numerous organizations about the need for preventing the spread of COVID-19, there still exists a gap as far as compliance to regular implementation of the preventive mechanisms within communities is concerned. The purpose of the present study was, therefore, to examine compliance to personal protective behavioral recommendations to contain the spread of COVID-19 among urban residents engaged in the informal economic activities in Wolaita Sodo town, Southern Ethiopia. A cross-sectional study design was used where quantitative data were collected through the survey research method. Three hundred and eighty-four participants of the urban-based informal economy were randomly selected and contacted in their own natural settings with an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Data were inserted into SPSS software for analysis that involved both descriptive and inferential statistics, including frequency and percentage distributions, binomial and multinomial logistic regressions. The results of the research indicated that only 35.4% of the respondents regularly wore a mask. In addition, 54.9% of the survey participants disclosed that they do not clean their hands with disinfectants after touching objects under circumstances where they cannot get access to water and soap. Moreover, the most commonly reported reason of respondents for non-compliance to regular wearing of a mask has been its inconvenience or discomfort (62.8%), followed by the need to appear indifferent because most people around them do not wear a mask (25.2%). Furthermore, experiences of the respondents of regularly wearing a mask are significantly associated with regular attendance of the media regarding the preventive mechanisms of COVID-19 (OR = 0.224; P &lt; 0.001; 95%C.I: 0.109–0.460), knowledge of someone ever infected by COVID-19 (OR = 0.402; P &lt; 0.05; 95%C.I: 0.190–0.851), the belief that COVID-19 causes a severe illness (OR = 0.444; P &lt; 0.05; 95%C.I: 0.201–0.980), and perception of the likelihood of dying as a result of infection by COVID-19 (OR = 0.374; P &lt; 0.01; 95% C.I: 0.197–0.711). The authors have found a low level of compliance to the recommended safety measures, especially wearing of masks. It is, therefore, important that continued efforts of raising awareness should be done by all the concerned bodies. Above all, urban safety net programs that aim at keeping such social groups at home, at least during the critical wave of the pandemic, should also be strengthened.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-24
Author(s):  
Firehiwot Danssa Getachew

Few researchers in Ethiopia have studied issues related to unintended pregnancy and little has been discussed about its cause especially in the rural parts of the county. Moreover, efforts to reduce the incidence of unintended pregnancy were very weak. Hence, there is a continued need for research, information sharing and documentation of efforts aimed at reducing unintended pregnancy. Hence the objective of this study is to measure the level of unintended pregnancy and identify associated factors among currently pregnant women in Duguna Fango Woreda, Wolaita Zone, South Ethiopia. Facility based Cross-sectional study method were instrumental under current study. Four hundred Seventy Seven (477) respondents were selected by systematic random sampling method from five health centers. Data collected through structured and pre-tested questionnaire, and analyzed using SPSS for windows version 16.0. Bivariate and multivariate logistic analysis was used to calculate the odds ratios with 95% confidence interval for the different risk factors. The level of significance was set at P < 0.05.  It is concluded that, unintended pregnancy was found to be a major reproductive health problem in the study area and thus deserves priority attention. It is recommended that, different  partners  in  partnership  with  the  government  to  address  the  issue of improving income among women, improving their perception, empowerment, economic status and women  on reproductive health issues is encouraged.  


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Reema M. Alhussein ◽  
Mansoor M. Albarrak ◽  
Abdulaziz A. Alrabiah ◽  
Nawfal A. Aljerian ◽  
Hashim M. Bin Salleeh ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Most sudden cardiac arrests occur at home, with low rates of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation being performed. We aimed to assess knowledge of cardiopulmonary resuscitation among individuals in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia, who are not involved in health care. Methods A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted between January and February 2020 in 4 different areas in Riyadh City: North, South, East, and West. The participants were surveyed using a validated self-administered questionnaire. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25.0 was used for inferential statistics and binary logistic regression analysis. Results A total of 856 participants completed the questionnaire, 51.8% were unaware of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Only 4.4% of the participants had attended a formal cardiopulmonary resuscitation training course, 5.1% were campaign attendees, and 38.7% acquired their experience through the media. Having a higher level of education was positively associated with having knowledge of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The main concern among attendees of cardiopulmonary resuscitation training courses and campaigns was legal issues, whereas inadequate knowledge was the major barrier for those who had learned about cardiopulmonary resuscitation through the media. Conclusion The level of knowledge of cardiopulmonary resuscitation among non-health care individuals in Riyadh City was found to be insufficient. Therefore, coordinated efforts among different authorities should be considered to implement a structured strategy aiming to increase awareness and knowledge of cardiopulmonary resuscitation among non-health care individuals.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. e049069
Author(s):  
Atsushi Miyawaki ◽  
Takahiro Tabuchi ◽  
Yasutake Tomata ◽  
Yusuke Tsugawa

ObjectiveTo investigate the association between participation in government subsidies for domestic travel (subsidise up to 50% of all travel expenses) introduced nationally in Japan on 22 July 2020 and the incidence of symptoms indicative of COVID-19 infections.DesignCross-sectional analysis of nationally representative survey data.SettingInternet survey conducted between 25 August and 30 September 2020 in Japan. Sampling weights were used to calculate national estimates.Participants25 482 survey respondents (50.3% (12 809) women; mean (SD) age, 48.8 (17.4) years).Main outcome measuresIncidence rate of five symptoms indicative of the COVID-19 infection (high fever, sore throat, cough, headache, and smell and taste disorder) within the past month of the survey, after adjustment for characteristics of individuals and prefecture fixed effects (effectively comparing individuals living in the same prefecture).ResultsAt the time of the survey, 3289 (12.9%) participated in the subsidy programme. After adjusting for potential confounders, we found that participants in the subsidy programme exhibited higher incidence of high fever (adjusted rate, 4.7% for participants vs 3.7% for non-participants; adjusted OR (aOR) 1.83; 95% CI 1.34 to 2.48; p<0.001), sore throat (19.8% vs 11.3%; aOR 2.09; 95% CI 1.37 to 3.19; p=0.002), cough (19.0% vs 11.3%; aOR 1.96; 95% CI 1.26 to 3.01; p=0.008), headache (29.2% vs 25.5%; aOR 1.24; 95% CI 1.08 to 1.44; p=0.006) and smell and taste disorder (2.6% vs 1.8%; aOR 1.98; 95% CI 1.15 to 3.40; p=0.01) compared with non-participants. These findings remained qualitatively unaffected by additional adjustment for the use of 17 preventative measures (eg, social distancing, wearing masks and handwashing) and fear against the COVID-19 infection.ConclusionsThe participation of the government subsidy programme for domestic travel was associated with a higher probability of exhibiting symptoms indicative of the COVID-19 infection.


Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 566
Author(s):  
Abanoub Riad ◽  
Huthaifa Abdulqader ◽  
Mariana Morgado ◽  
Silvi Domnori ◽  
Michal Koščík ◽  
...  

Background: Acceleration of mass vaccination strategies is the only pathway to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare professionals and students have a key role in shaping public opinion about vaccines. This study aimed to evaluate the attitudes of dental students globally towards COVID-19 vaccines and explore the potential drivers for students’ acceptance levels. Methods: A global cross-sectional study was carried out in February 2021 using an online questionnaire. The study was liaised by the scientific committee of the International Association of Dental Students (IADS), and data were collected through the national and local coordinators of IADS member organizations. The dependent variable was the willingness to take the COVID-19 vaccine, and the independent variables included demographic characteristics, COVID-19-related experience, and the drivers of COVID-19 vaccine-related attitude suggested by the WHO SAGE. Results: A total of 6639 students from 22 countries, representing all world regions, responded to the questionnaire properly. Their mean age was 22.1 ± 2.8 (17–40) years, and the majority were females (70.5%), in clinical years (66.8%), and from upper-middle-income economies (45.7%). In general, 22.5% of dental students worldwide were hesitant, and 13.9% rejected COVID-19 vaccines. The students in low- and lower-middle-income (LLMI) economies had significantly higher levels of vaccine hesitancy compared to their peers in upper-middle- and high-income (UMHI) economies (30.4% vs. 19.8%; p < 0.01). Conclusions: The global acceptance level of dental students for COVID-19 vaccines was suboptimal, and their worrisome level of vaccine hesitancy was influenced by the socioeconomic context where the dental students live and study. The media and social media, public figures, insufficient knowledge about vaccines, and mistrust of governments and the pharmaceutical industry were barriers to vaccination. The findings of this study call for further implementation of epidemiology (infectious diseases) education within undergraduate dental curricula.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. e041516
Author(s):  
Wenchao Li ◽  
Jing Li ◽  
Junjian Yi

ObjectivesBetter understanding of the dynamics of the COVID-19 (2019 novel coronavirus disease) pandemic to curb its spread is now a global imperative. While travel restrictions and control measures have been shown to limit the spread of the disease, the effectiveness of the enforcement of those measures should depend on the strength of the government. Whether, and how, the government plays a role in fighting the disease, however, has not been investigated. Here, we show that government management capacities are critical to the containment of the disease.SettingWe conducted a statistical analysis based on cross-city comparisons within China. China has undergone almost the entire cycle of the anticoronavirus campaign, which allows us to trace the full dynamics of the outbreak, with homogeneity in standards for statistics recording.Primary and secondary outcome measuresOutcome measures include city-specific COVID-19 case incidence and recoveries in China.ResultsThe containment of COVID-19 depends on the effectiveness of the enforcement of control measures, which in turn depends on the local government’s management capacities. Specifically, government efficiency, capacity for law enforcement, and the transparency of laws and policies significantly reduce COVID-19 prevalence and increase the likelihood of recoveries. The organisation size of the government, which is not closely related to its capacity for management, has a limited role.


2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moges Tadesse ◽  
Takele Tadesse

Accidental needlestick injuries sustained by health-care workers are a common occupational hazard and a public health issue in health-care settings. An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted and 30.9% of health-care workers had experienced at least one needlestick injury in the previous year.


Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 2535
Author(s):  
Vanessa Mijares ◽  
Jair Alcivar ◽  
Cristina Palacios

The objective of this study was to explore the associations between food waste and the diet quality of foods purchased and with grocery purchasing behaviors. This was a cross-sectional study among 109 primary household food providers conducting primary shopping. Participants were recruited outside of local grocery stores and were asked to complete a survey assessing amounts of avoidable food waste and grocery purchasing behaviors. The diet quality of the foods purchased was assessed from grocery receipts using the Grocery Purchase Quality Index-2016 (GPQI-2016). Variables were associated using linear regression, analysis of covariance, and point biserial correlations. We found that fresh fruits (63%) and leafy greens (70%) were the foods that were the most wasted. The GPQI-2016 total score was significantly inversely associated with the total amount of food wasted (β  =  −0.63; 95% CI: −1.14,−0.12) after adjusting for important confounders. The reason “food past the date printed on the package” was directly correlated with food wasted (r = 0.40; p < 0.01) but inversely correlated with GPQI-2016 score (r = −0.21; p = 0.04). Food wasted, but not the GPQI-2016 score, was significantly higher among those who grocery shop 2–4 times per week compared to 1 time every 1–2 weeks (p = 0.02). In conclusion, food waste is inversely associated with diet quality and directly associated with grocery purchasing frequency.


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