Assessment of the health status in pharmaceutical workers

Introduction. Pharmaceutical workers (PW) being exposed to adverse physical, chemical, and biological factors are responsible for the performance results and experience psycho-emotional stress. This contributes to the emergence of diseases associated with professional activity, and, therefore, it is necessary to find ways to prevent them.

The purpose of the study: assessment of the state of health in the pharmaceutical workers; determination of factors affecting morbidity, search for ways to preserve and strengthen the health in specialists.

Materials and methods. To study the health status in PW, data were collected by using the questionnaire method, which made it possible to identify symptoms of diseases of the nervous, respiratory, cardiovascular, digestive, musculoskeletal, immune, genitourinary, and reproductive systems. The level of anxiety in PW was determined by the method of CD Spielberger.

Results. In PW there were found symptoms of diseases of all body systems, but the greatest number of complaints were about disorders of the nervous (25.3%), digestive (18.1%), and respiratory (16.0%) systems. The majority of respondents revealed medium and high levels of situational anxiety as much as 46.7% and 36.5%, respectively. Almost half of the respondents have a high level of personal anxiety. The influence of age and work experience on the health status in PW was noted. The highest level of personal anxiety is observed in women. Situational anxiety is expressed among workers who have bad habits. Employees with high situational anxiety have more symptoms of nervous system diseases.

Research limitations. A total of 107 questionnaires were evaluated, when studying the health status of PW in pharmacy organizations.

Conclusion. Most PW maintain a healthy lifestyle: they do not have bad habits, follow a healthy diet, have sufficient sleep, and an active lifestyle. However, 80% noted non-compliance with the work-rest balance when performing occupational activities (working). In this regard, it is important to pay attention to the labour optimization, ensuring a favourable socio-psychological climate at work, and the use of relief techniques.

Compliance with ethical standards. Conclusion of the ethical committee No. 9186 from 28.07.2022: the documentation is presented in full and does not contradict the requirements of the Ethics Committee.

Contribution of the authors:|
Nagornyak Yu.G. — research concept, collection and processing of material, writing the text and compilation of the list of literature;
Kanakina T.A. — research concept, collection and processing of material, writing the text and compilation of the list of literature;
Ruzlyaeva E.A. — research concept, collection and processing of material, writing the text and compilation of the list of literature;
Fokin V.A. — statistical data processing;
Ratkin A.V. — editing.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Acknowledgment. The study had no sponsorship.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Received: August 30, 2022 / Revised: November 3, 2022 / Accepted: January 12, 2023/ Published: April 29, 2024