Gender, Age and Job Tenure as Determinants of Health Seeking Behaviours among Noise-Prone Industrial Workers in Nigeria: Implication of the Findings for Counselling

This study examines gender, age and job tenure as determinants of health-seeking
behaviours among noise-prone industrial workers in Nigeria. The study utilised a
descriptive epidemiologic cross-sectional survey design. The survey sample size was 400 industrial workers who were randomly sampled from confectionary, construction companies, cement and electrical appliances factories situated in Lagos, Ogun and Oyo states. Occupational Health Scale (OHS) was used to assess the extent of health-seeking behaviour which is the criterion variable in the study. The OHS is rated on 5-point scale, related to three major dimensions of occupational health, namely, physical, psychological and social. The items in the scale cover four areas contributing to the state of comprehensive occupational health that is job characteristics, working conditions (physical), psycho-social work environ-ment, organisational structure and management policies. A piloted split-half reliability of the scale was found to be .92 for this study.
Three null hypotheses were tested. The data collected were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-test statistics so as to establish the differences in the mean scores of the variables.Findings also reveal a significant difference in the health seeking behaviour of the participants based on work experience. Further, age (young, =39.33; young, x=38.43) of the participants is a strong variable in occupational health seeking behaviours. The t-test statistical values yielded a significant variation in the mean values of young and old workers (n=400, df = 398; t =3.58). Also, gender (males, x=32.19;females, x= 40.24) has significant impact on the workers’ health seeking behaviour of the workers (n=400,df = 398; t = 3.19). It is recommended that social workers, and counselling psychologists should mount trainings in educating the stakeholders about preventive health related measures required to maintain their sense of hearing. Information on hearing protection should accompany the purchase of equipment, and other noisy, non-industrial related equipment.