Assessment of knowledge, attitude and usage on personal protective equipment among mechanical maintenance workers of a power generation unit in Thailand

Abstract

A Power Generation Unit has duty of electric power supply to the people by producing and distributing electric power. The mechanical maintenance department is one part of their responsibility to achieve the target. However, 207 accident cases were reported during 2012 to 2019. The main causes were found to be unsafe act and unsafe condition including improper usage and lack of personal protective equipment (PPEs). Thus, knowledge, attitude regarding to PPEs, its usage, and factors related to PPEs usage of mechanical maintenance workers need to be assessed. This survey study collected data through self-response questionnaire from 379 mechanical maintenance workers of a power generation unit in Thailand. The average age of the workers is 42 years. Most of workers are man and 80.7% have a position as technician. Most of them have ever passed safety training before starting working which wearing PPEs was a part of safety training. Half of workers got injury from accident while working. The results reveal that 43.3%, 54.6%, and 2.1% of the workers possess level of knowledge at high, moderate, and low respectively. Only 20.8% showed high level of attitude on PPE usage. Moreover, 77% of them did not regularly use recommended PPEs while working, among these, 60% of them did not use regular PPEs and a few used particular PPEs. The association between attitude and practice was significantly low positive correlation. Besides, attitude also associated with knowledge. No association between knowledge and practice was found. Related factors can affect to usage PPEs (p-value<0.05); i.e., job position, department, education, times of safety training), injury’s history, and attitude. The results of the study suggested that policy and program is necessary enhance the awareness of the benefit of wearing PPEs and training should be introduced for workers in Thailand. The further study should be conducted to investigate the reason behind cause of non-use PPEs during working.