Term of Award

Fall 2018

Degree Name

Doctor of Public Health in Public Health Leadership (Dr.P.H.)

Document Type and Release Option

Dissertation (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Health Policy & Management (COPH)

Committee Chair

Atin Adhikari

Committee Member 1

Jingjin Yin

Committee Member 2

Stacy Smallwood

Committee Member 3

Gulzar Shah

Committee Member 3 Email

gshah@georgiasouthern.edu

Abstract

Wastewater workers are exposed to different occupational hazards such as chemicals, gases, viruses, and bacteria. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is a significant factor that can reduce or increase the probability of an accident from hazardous exposures to chemicals and microbial contaminants. The purpose of this study was to identify wastewater worker’s beliefs and practices on wearing PPE and protections offered by PPE through the integration of the Health Belief Model (HBM). Participants were workers in the wastewater industry, which included wastewater operators, laboratory analysts, maintenance workers, wastewater collection workers, equipment operators, managers, and supervisors (n=272). The instrument was a self-administered survey that assessed the participants’ demographics, knowledge, and compliance with wearing PPE. The internal consistency and reliability of the summarized scales in the survey instrument were determined by Cronbach’s alpha statistical analysis. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted to present frequency distributions of participants’ knowledge, and compliance with wearing PPE. Simple and multiple linear regression models were applied to determine the association of predictors of interest with PPE compliance. The summary of findings from this study include: 1) Perceived susceptibility and perceived severity were positively associated with PPE compliance; this association was statistically significant (p

OCLC Number

1085541978

Research Data and Supplementary Material

Yes

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