ABSTRACT
BackgroundThe target group of the project, working age population, is more vulnerably exposed to the risk factors of NCDs due to deficiency of physical activities, stress, unhealthy eating, etc. The current study was carried out to assess the knowledge and attitude on health promoting workplaces among the employees of public and non-governmental organizations and businesses operating in Kherlen soum of Khentii aimag, identify their needs and make conclusions.Materials and MethodsThe cross-sectional study used questionnaires for 195 employees of 10 public agencies and 3 business entities of Kherlen soum of Khentii aimag, focus group discussions among 32 employees and individual interviews with 13 managing officials.ResultsWomen composed 38% (74 persons) and men composed 62% (121 persons) of the participants of the study. As for the duration of the service, 115 people or 58.7% have served for 1-10 years, 49 people or 25% have served for 11-20 years, 21 persons or 10.7% have served for 21-30 years and 6 persons or 3.1% have worked for 30 years. As for the knowledge of health promoting workplaces, the absolute majority of the participants demonstrated medium or low level of knowledge with statistical significance (p<0.01) among ages, with women demonstrating higher level of knowledge and increasing trend with the years of work. Absolute majority of the participants of the qualitative survey answered that possess insufficient information of health promoting workplaces. Majority or 54.2% (105) of the participants understand health promoting workplaces as provision of working conditions and organization of preventive health check ups. Creating healthy workplaces will have no negativeimpact but increased productivity, higher morale, better wellness, according to the respondents. Job satisfaction as an impact of health promotion at workplace was supported by 48.4% of the employees at 20-30 years age and 54.2% of the employees who have served for 11-20 years. 57.7% (112) of the respondents disagree that their workplaces created health promoting conditions. The knowledge of the majority of the participants in insufficient as 89.3% answer that WHP is provision of healthy environment for working. Health promotion is not implemented sufficiently at the policy level and is limited merely to improvement of physical environment and solution of social problems, with insufficient behavior targeting actions and participation of employees in health promoting activities.Conclusions:1. The knowledge on health promoting workplaces is insufficient.2. The answers of the respondents that lack of health promotion at workplaces will reduce productivity (69.2%) and adversely affect the health of the employees (44.7%) demonstrate the need in WHP.3. The further activities necessary for further development of health promoting workplaces were identified as provision of comprehensive knowledge, cooperation with professional organizations and learn from experiences of health promoting workplace models, mutual learning and solution of the financial issues.
ABSTRACT
IntroductionClimate change has already been started in Mongolia. The frequency of natural disaster such as drought, zud disaster, snow storm, hot and cold extreme weather, and earthquake has increased every year. As per daily information of meteorological stations, annual air temperature has been increased since 1960. Children is more sensitive in varies environmental impacts compared with adults and adverse effects caused by climate changes can be remained in all lives and it can be irreversible. Relation between climate change and children’s health is one of the issues which have not been studied yet. The purpose of this study was to investigate relationship between respiratory diseases of children and climate change as well as some air pollution parameters.Materials and MethodsStudy was carried out by cross-sectional study design. According to the regional climate classification of Mongolia, Zavkhan, Selenge, Dornod and Umnugovi provinces was selected as a target area of the study. The relationship between respiratory disease of children and climate change as well as some air pollution parameters were analyzed based on statistical data of Health Departments and Family doctors’ documentation of those provinces for prevalence and incidence of respiratory disease among the children aged 0-16 and daily information of climate parameters such as air temperature, air pressure, relative humidity and precipitation status taken from selected provinces Meteorological Departments and data for air quality basic parameters (SO2, NO2, CO2, PM 10) taken from Air Quality Department of Ulaanbaatar city.ResultsRespiratory diseases among the target ages were registered highly (70.7%) in age of 0-5 years. According to the comparison results in incidence rate of respiratory diseases by region, upper respiratory tract diseases (J09-J18) and lower respiratory tract diseases (J20-J22) were registered in Umnugovi aimag (254.75 and 50.42cases per 10000 children)which belong to very dry and warm regions and Dornod aimag (121.62 and 26.11 cases per 10000 children) which belong to dryish cold regions in 2010. Respiratory tract diseases (J09-J18, J20-J22) were correlated weak indirectly with average air temperature and minimum average air temperature. It was correlated weak directly with wind speed and air pressure. Respiratory tract diseases (J09- J18, J20-J22) were correlated directly with SO2 concentration in air (r=0.269, p>0.001) and NO2 (r=0.286, p>0.001).ConclusionClimate change and air pollution could be influenced on the increase of morbidity of respiratory tract infections. Some air pollution parameters such as SO2, NO2 and PM2.5 and air temperature, air pressure, relative humidity and wind speed are the causes of respiratory tract infections among the children aged 0-16.