Impact of type and stage of schistosomiasis on quality of life and productivity of infected workers.
All workers with schistosomiasis (205 workers) during the field period (April 1998 to March 1999) were included. The study tools included an interviewing schedule, the WHO QOL-brief and a production data format specially designed to obtain data about the productivity of the workers. The data revealed that 78.8% of the schistosomiasis workers suffered from Schistosoma mansoni while only 7.6% suffered from S. haematobium and 13.5% had a mixed infection. Workers infected with S. mansoni tended to have lower mean percent of all the QOL domains and productivity indicators compared with workers infected with S. haematobium but these differences were not statistically significant. Workers with complications of schistosomiasis had significantly lower values for the QOL physical, social relationship and environmental domains (55.27 +/- 15.59, 74.94 +/- 5.34 and 56.39 +/- 15.09 versus 61.38 +/- 5.74, 79.36 +/- 11.96 and 61.64 +/- 7.74 respectively). Moreover, the production score was significantly lower in the workers with complication compared with workers free from schistosomiasis complications. The mean percent of QOL domains decreased as the stage of schistosomiasis increased from stage 1 to stage 4, this was statistically significant for the physical and independence domain. The mean additional hours and production scores decreased successively from stage 1 to stage 4 of schistosomiasis. Thus, special attention should be paid to schistosomiasis workers for early detection and treatment of complications to improve the QOL and increase the productivity of those workers. The impact of the stage of schistosomiasis on productivity and QOL of workers needs further research with a wide spectrum of workload in different industries.
Kamel
M I
MI
Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
Ghafar
Y A
YA
Foda
N
N
Khashab
S
S
D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D004526:Efficiency; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009790:Occupations; D011788:Quality of Life; D012548:Schistosoma haematobium; D012550:Schistosoma mansoni; D012552:Schistosomiasis / Q000145:classification* / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires