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the availability of the following slaughterhouse facilities:
fence, roof, lairage, water, electricity and waste disposal system. Questions on work-associated injuries and accidents
and responses to these injuries were contained in parts
three and four. In sections five and six, questions on sanitation and personal hygiene of the slaughterhouse workers
were asked. Lastly, questions were asked about meat inspection and zoonoses, as well as food safety knowledge. The
questions in the various sections of the survey instrument
were designed to investigate occupational health in relation
to food safety risk at the slaughterhouses.
Before administration, the questionnaire was translated
into Yoruba for respondents opting to respond in this language. Yoruba is the major dialect used for communication
by most of the workers at the slaughterhouses. To pretest
the questionnaire, 10 butchers were recruited at the Ipata
slaughterhouse. The questionnaire was revised on the basis
of feedback obtained from the pretest prior to final administration (randomly) to the targeted population. The inclusion criteria include the requirement that participants have
at least one year of work experience at a slaughterhouse and
be above 18 years old. Meat processors and other workers in
slaughter slabs were excluded from the study. Two trained
enumerators administered the questionnaire. Permission
was sought from the Butchers' Associations of the slaughterhouses. Oral consent was given by respondents, participation was voluntary and respondents were allowed to
withdraw at any point during the study without prejudice,
in agreement with the ethical protocol stipulated by the
World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (38).
All data collected were maintained with strict confidentiality. The Ethical Review Committee of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ilorin, Ilorin granted approval
(FVER/003/2019) for the study.
Data management and statistical analysis
Data were summarized with the Microsoft Office Excel
package, version 2019. Statistical analyses were performed
with the Open Source Epidemiologic Statistics for Public
Health (OpenEpi), version 3.01 (13). In this study, a major
outcome variable - respondents' knowledge of food safety
risk in relation to work-associated injuries - was developed.
To evaluate this outcome variable, a previously established
numerical scoring pattern was used (31). Knowledge
scores obtained by respondents ranged from 0 to 10 points
(mean: 2.75 ± 1.63). The knowledge scores were evaluated by setting a cut-off point as a score below the mean +
standard deviation. These scores were then expressed as
binary variables (satisfactory/unsatisfactory). Respondents
whose knowledge scores were above the specified cut-off
point were deemed to have satisfactory knowledge of food
safety risk associated with work injuries. Gender, pregnancy status, age, marital status, education, job type, years of
experience and the slaughterhouse (name/location) were

used as independent variables in the analyses. Descriptive
and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The
chi-square test and Fisher's exact test for binary variables
were used to test for significance of the association between
demographic characteristics and knowledge of food safety
risk associated with work injuries, at the 0.05 level. Further
analyses were performed using the step-wise backward
likelihood multivariate logistic regression while controlling
for confounders and effect modifiers.
RESULTS
Demographic information
Of the 260 workers approached to participate in the
study, 203 consented to give a response rate of 78.1%. The
age of the participants was 36.7 ± 9.3 years. The majority
(55.2%) of the respondents were male, and over three-quarters (81.3%) were married. The highest number (81) of
participants had completed the primary level of education.
Regarding job category, the majority (52.2%) of the respondents were butchers, while few respondents (6.4%) were
drivers. The majority (65.5%) of these workers had less
than 11 years of work experience (Table 1).
Work-associated injuries/accidents and responses of
slaughterhouse workers
Work-associated injuries/accidents
Surveyed slaughterhouse workers usually worked for
5.7 ± 2.2 hrs/day and 5.8 ± 0.6 days/week, although the
majority (179; 88.2%) work 6 days per week (Table 2).
The majority (178; 87.7%) reported having had injuries in
the course of their work in the slaughterhouse, with 143
(70.4%) respondents having more than one of such injuries.
Usually, these injuries occurred on the slaughterhouse
premises 109 (61.2%) and during active work hours (119;
66.9%) rather than on the roads (13; 7.3%).
Body parts affected
Of the 178 respondents who reported having had injuries, 65, 22, 11 and 10 slaughterhouse workers reported the
feet, lower back, knee, and face, respectively, as the body
parts most commonly affected (Fig. 1). However, some
respondents (34; 16.7%) reported injury of three or more
body parts, while injuries of the feet and hands were reported by a few (15; 7.4%) of the respondents.
Sources of injuries
Apart from animals as the cause of injuries (52; 28.1%),
hand equipment was reported by the majority of slaughterhouse workers (145; 71.4%) as the source of injuries sustained during work (Table 2). Other injury sources reported
by respondents were the slaughterhouse floor (18; 8.9%);
fire (11; 5.4%); transport vehicle (10; 4.9%); and heavy
equipment (3; 1.5%).

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Food Protection Trends - July/August 2020

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