Knowledge, attitude, behavior related to personal protective use of among workers in the factory

Increasing occupational diseases and work accidents, along with developing technology and industrialization, can be prevented by different methods such as engineering controls, administrative measures and personal protective equipment. Employees are provided with personal protective equipment, where the prevention or reduction of risks is not ensured by technical and administrative measures. The aim of this study is to determine knowledge, attıtude and practıce related to personal protective equipment and occupational accidents frequency. A total of 2300 workers working in the television (n= 1200) and washing machine (n=1100) factories constitute the universe of research. With the help of Epi info computer package program, minimum sample size to be taken when universe size of 2300, prevalence of 50 %, confidence interval of 95% and margin error of 5% were taken as basis was calculated as 460 (television=240, washing machine = 220). Data were gathered under supervision with a questionnaire technique . 41.5% of the employees are primary school and under and 44.0% are graduated from general / vocational high school. The average working time of the employees is 4.78 ± 4.69 years. 98.0% of the workers were trained in OHS and and 71.8% of them think OSH training is useful. 84.3% of the employees know that there is an OHS committee in the workplace and 74.5% think that the OHS committee is useful in preventing work accidents. 33.2% of the workers regard the workplace as high risk for work accidents. 89.8% of the employees are satisfied with the measures taken to prevent work accidents.The problems faced by employees in the workplace are the most exhausted, social life inadequacies and irritability. The physical factors that the worker is most exposed to in the workplace are noise, high temperature, stress, long working hours and heavy lifting. The average score of information on workers' use of personal protective equipment is 8.85 ± 2.19. 85.4% of employees are positive about the use of PPE and 70.4% of employees always use PPE. The most commonly used PPE shoes and handbags. Employees stated that they did not use the PPE because it most often disrupted their work. 16.7% of the workers have had work accidents in the last 6 months and the most frequent cause of accident is carelessness. The average of the PPE knowledge score was found to be higher for those who have high educational status, work in the washing machine factory, work 8 hours per day, do not work in shifts, think OSH training is beneficial, know OSH is in the workplace and think OSH is effective in preventing work accidents. According to the results of the multivariable analysis, those who work in the washing machine factory and those who think that OHS training is beneficial have a more positive attitude towards the use of PPE, It was found that workers in the washing machine factory, those who think that OSH training is beneficial, and those who think that the precautions in the workplace are sufficient, use more PPE. According to the highly variable analysis of occupational accidents, it was found that those who think that OSH training is beneficial and those who use PPE have less occupational accidents. Key words: Personal Protective Equipment, Knowledge, Attitude, Behavior, Occupational accident