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A Comparative Study of Prevalence of Morbidities among Municipal Solid Waste Workers in Mumbai

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Abstract

Paper investigates the association between labour intensive work of solid waste collection and street sweeping with the development of skin disease, respiratory disease, eye infection, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and MSDs-related disabilities during the service. A primary survey was conducted with 540 municipal employees adopting multistage stratified systematic sampling in 6 out of 24 municipal wards in Mumbai. The data was collected between March and September 2015, and analysis was performed in STATA13. The prevalence of self-reported morbidities among municipal workers varies from 7 to 46% in the reference period of the past 6 and 12 months. Adjusted odds of major morbidities show that the waste collectors significantly more likely to have injury/accident (OR = 11.36; p < 0.01), skin disease (OR = 4.971; p < 0.01), eye infections (OR = 3.03; p < 0.01) and MSDs (OR = 2.04; p < 0.05) in reference to comparison group. Similarly, street sweepers significantly more likely to have injury/accident (OR = 4.08; p < 0.01), skin disease (OR = 4.50; p < 0.01), respiratory disease (OR = 2.63; p < 0.01), MSDs (OR = 2.17; p < 0.01) and disability (OR = 1.92; p < 0.05) in reference to comparison group. Propensity score matching method analysis suggests that the waste collecting and street sweeping occupation significantly increases the prevalence of morbidities among exposed workers than the matched non-exposed workers. The mean expenditure on treatment of morbidities show that street sweepers spends significantly (p < 0.05) higher amount of money for injury/accident, eye infections and MSDs followed by waste collectors compared with comparison group. Workers associated with the street sweeping and waste collecting occupation has higher burden of developing morbidities and health expenditure compared with other occupation.

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  1. Population Research Centre, JSS Institute of Economic Research, Dharwad, Karnataka, 580 004, India

    Pradeep S. Salve

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The author declared no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

This paper is a part of the PhD thesis work conducted during 2013–2018 in IIPS. The prior permission for data collection was taken from the MCGM. The ethical clearance certificate approved by the Ethical Review Committee of IIPS (SREC12/3144) prior to field work.

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Oral and written informed consent was taken wherever applicable. While conducting the survey on the field, full confidentiality of information was maintained and workers were assured about the secrecy of information share during the interviews.

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Salve, P.S. A Comparative Study of Prevalence of Morbidities among Municipal Solid Waste Workers in Mumbai. SN Compr. Clin. Med. 2, 1534–1542 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42399-020-00441-7

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