Assessment of houseworks with perspective of occupational health and safety and the study of guidebook development

Many household chores done everyday which causes to be encountered with many physical, biological, chemical, ergonomic and psycosocial risks depending on the chore done. Our study's aim is to determine health and security risks in household chores, to create a guideline about preventing these risks and taking precautions and evaluating the efficacy of this guideline. Our study has done between November 2016-February 2017. In the first step of study, in the direction of information gathered from interviews with housewives current steps of chores identified as: kitchen work, general cleaning works, doing laundry, ironing, tidying up house, warming and conditioning works, household pet's care, gardening, and others. In Trabzon field assessment done in three different type of houses with hazard and risk forms filled out for each step of household chores to present existing risks and hazards. Occupational safety specialists and occupational physicians who conducted the second phase were engaged in the development of a guideline that included interpretation of results from the research team and recommendations for resolution. The guideline contains information and protective practices to be aware of for all household work steps. During the third phase, a questionnaire survey was conducted to find out about the risks housewives could face in their homes and the precautions that could be taken before and after the distribution of the guide to 120 women for the evaluation of the effectiveness of the guide formed. The guide created in the last phase of the work was duplicated and distributed to 250 housewives. Result of the questionnaire survey shows that, there was a significant difference between the levels of knowledge and awareness of women before and after guideline distribution. In all these findings, attempts have been made to develop proposals for hazards and risks related to housework, and it is thought that the adoption and implementation of these proposals by housekeepers can reduce occupational accidents and diseases in homes.