Health problems in textile industry in Democratic Republic of Congo

The objective of this work was to highlight the influence of the occupational conditions on the textile sector workers' health in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). We conduct an exploratory cross-sectional study of two populations within a plant located at the North of the DRC: workers (N=114) and executive or employees (N=96). Our total sample data (N=210) were collected by a questionnaire focused on the procedures, the exposures and the effects on health. Odds ratio (OR) and confidence interval at 95% were estimated. For each significant diseases symptom, a regression model has been achieved in order to estimate OR adjusted for association of disease symptoms and occupational statute. Workers compared to employees present high frequencies and exposure rates for many diseases symptoms. These OR are respectively for cough (OR = 5.1; IC: 2.93-10.68); respiratory difficulty (OR = 2.9; IC: 1.42-6.42) thoracic pain (OR = 2.6; IC: 1.31-5.24); fever (OR = 2.4; IC: 1.27-4.50); upper limbs pain (OR = 4.8; IC: 2.55-8.80); neck-shoulder pain (OR = 3.8; IC: 2.02-7.31); ocular diseases (OR = 2.2; IC: 1.17-3.89) and cutaneous diseases (OR = 2.5; IC: 1.18-5.46). The OR related to the libido loss is highest (OR = 5.5; IC: 2.84-10.71). In the other hand, the OR of the neuropsychics disorders are lower than 1 in this comparison and are respectively of 0.5 (0.28-0.95) for tiredness; 0.2 (0.08-0.28) for the lack of concentration and 0.07 (0.04-0.18) for the stress. In conclusion, the frequencies and high OR observed attest differences of the health issues between the workers and employees whose causes could be under the live and work conditions. These results should be confronted with those of other studies in health at the work.