Prevalence and Pattern of Usage of Smartphone Applications Enhancing Occupational Health and Safety among Workers at 10th of Ramadan City

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor of Industrial Medicine and Occupational Health, Public Health and Community Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University

2 Professor of Industrial Medicine and Occupational Health, Public Health and Community Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University

3 Demonstrator of Industrial Medicine and Occupational Health, Public Health and Community Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University

Abstract

Background: Over the past several years, numerous mobile health Applications have been developed globally to provide better medical access and care to users or patients. Mobile Health Applications aim to make healthcare professionals' work simpler by offering direct contact with medical specialists.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a randomly selected group of workers and safety employees at two randomly selected industrial facilities (Cosmetic Products Company & Cable Industry Company) at 10th of Ramadan City, Sharkia Governorate, Egypt. A multistage (two stages) random sample was adopted, and the estimated sample size was calculated to be 311 workers.

Results: The studied participants had a mean age of 39.3 ± 10.9 years, about two-thirds of them were males (67.5%), about half of them were married (47.9%), most of them (59.7%) had more than or equal to 3 children, and (63.8%) had a child older than or equal to 15 years. Only one-third of them (32.8%) received high education. About two-thirds of the participants (63.3%) used smartphones for both work and personal use; while (40.2%) of them used smartphone applications to improve occupational health; out of them only (11.6%) used private Apps. The most frequently reported fields of smartphone applications usage among the studied participants were occupational health legislations and rights and noise reduction (40.2% for both). The most frequently reported challenge was network problems.

Conclusion: The studied sample of workers uses smartphone applications, particularly at work, to improve health and safety.

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