Relationship between Quality of Life and Occupational Accidents in South-East of Iran (Zahedan)

With the development of science and technology, occupational accidents, as one of the most important problems in the world, result in negative effects on physical and psychological health, and also the quality of life of workers. The aim of this study was to compare the quality of life among workers with and without accident. In a cross-sectional study, 93 workers were selected, 31 who experienced accident and 62 as control group. To gather the data, a researcher-made questionnaire for demographic characteristics and the quality of life questionnaire (SF-36) were used. Mann-Whitney and Chi-square tests were used for data analysis. The mean and standard deviation of age was 30.81±7.29 and 30.56±7.19 in workers with accident (case group) and control group, respectively. Homogeneity was ensured in terms of age and work experience and the two groups had no significant difference in this regard (p>0.05). Most of the participants were high school graduates (67.7%). The majority of accidents (68.8%) had occurred in the manufacturing sections. The most common accident type was sprayed chemical substances (19.4%) and the less frequent was electrocution (3.2%). The mean total score for the quality of life was 37.61±14.29 and 74.92±12.95 in the case and control groups with a statistical significance difference (p<0.001). The results of this study indicate that the incident could affect the quality of life of workers. Therefore, promoting the safety culture can help to reduce the occupational accidents.