Occupational Health Needs, Problems and Intervention Strategies for Female Lecturers in Tertiary Institutions in Rivers State

Abstract

Workers’ health and healthy work environments are among the most valuable assets of individuals, communities and countries globally. Occupational health therefore remains imperative as it addresses the health of workers for higher productivity, quality of products, work motivation, job satisfaction among others. This study investigated occupational health needs, problems and intervention strategies for female lecturers in tertiary institutions in Rivers State. To achieve the purpose of the study, 21 specific objectives with the corresponding research questions and six null hypotheses guided the study. A descriptive cross-sectional survey research design was adopted and the population for this study was 911 which consisted of all female teaching staff in all the public tertiary institutions (State and Federal tertiary institutions) in Rivers State. However, in this study the entire population was used hence, there was no sampling since the population size was relatively manageable. Two instruments were used for data collection namely; Occupational Health Needs and Problems Questionnaire (OHNPQ) and Intervention Strategies for Occupational Health Needs and Problems Questionnaire (ISOHNPQ). Frequencies and percentages were used to answer the research questions while Chi Square Statistic was used to test the null hypotheses at .05 level of significance and appropriate degree of freedom. The major findings obtained from the study showed that: more than half (67.2%) of the respondents identified health education intervention, screening programmes and vocational rehabilitation as mental health needs of female lecturers. Also, more than half (63.4%) of female lecturers considered the social health needs such good interpersonal relationships among colleagues support from male counterparts and administrative staff necessary. Female lecturers also identified health checks/blood pressure check (96.6%), healthy eating/weight management (94.5%), physical activity (91.8%), mental wellbeing (91.5%), and ergonomic aids (86.7%) as necessary in the workplace. More than half (69.2%) of the experts considered the formulated intervention strategies such as female lecturers engagement in health checks/blood pressure checks (84.6%), adoption of healthy eating pattern and weight management practices (76.9%) among others as appropriate for promoting occupational health needs of female lecturers and two-third (73.1%) of the experts considered the formulated intervention strategies such as provision of free or subsidized occupational health care services for lecturers by the school management (84.6%) among others as appropriate for preventing and mitigating occupational health problems of female lecturers. Based on these findings, it was recommended among others that Rivers State government should partner with the Ministry of Labour and Productivity to adopt the intervention strategies for occupational health needs and problems formulated by this study for inclusion into occupational health programmes for female workers and the school management of all the tertiary institutions in Rivers State should implement the intervention strategies formulated in this study in order to improve the health and wellbeing of female lecturers in their workplace.