Investigation of occupational health and safety levels in genetic disease centers in Istanbul

Genetic Disease Diagnostic Center Laboratories are research laboratories where tests are conducted to predict anomalies that may occur during the transmission of genetic material inherited by individuals across generations and to investigate the source of existing mutations. Classifying these laboratories solely based on biosafety levels according to the risk group of the biological material used is insufficient, as it does not encompass all the risks arising from the studies conducted within the laboratories. In this context, this thesis aims to classify Genetic Disease Diagnostic Centers according to their occupational health and safety levels by investigating the interrelationships between all hazard groups encountered in the laboratories and the impacts of these hazard groups on risk management. The study, conducted in three stages, began with the first stage where a research data form was administered to employees of the Genetic Disease Diagnosis Centers using a 7-point Likert scale. In the second stage, the data obtained from the research form was analyzed using the SPSS program. Initially, a reliability analysis was performed, and after determining that the Cronbach's Alpha value was above 0.700 (ranging between 0.825 and 0.983), correlation and regression analyses were applied. In the third stage, the SPSS results were dimensionally reduced using PCA (Principal Component Analysis), which significantly reduced multidimensional data into three groups. The k-NN algorithm was then used to classify the Genetic Disease Diagnosis Centers into three levels based on their occupational health and safety standards, achieving an accuracy rate of 93.33%.