A Comparison of Occupational Health Literacy between Thai and Myanmar Migrant Workers in an Industrial Factory in Prachinburi Province

Abstract

     This research aimed to study the following: 1) personal factors, work-related factors, and levels of occupational health literacy; 2) differences in personal factors, work-related factors, and occupational health literacy scores between the two groups of workers; and 3) comparisons of occupational health literacy scores based on personal and work-related factors within Thai workers and Myanmar migrant workers in an industrial factory in Prachinburi Province. This survey research by cross-sectional study was conducted among 594 operational-level workers aged 18-59 years at an industrial factory in Prachinburi Province. The sample consisted of 119 participants, including 70 Thai workers selected via stratified and simple random sampling and 49 Myanmar migrant workers. Data were collected from all Myanmar migrant workers who met the inclusion criteria. The research instrument was a questionnaire covering personal factors, work-related factors, and occupational health literacy, with reliability coefficients of 0.94 for the Thai version and 0.77 for the Myanmar version. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test, the Mann-Whitney U test, and the Kruskal-Wallis test.

     The results revealed the following. 1) The majority of workers in both groups were male, aged 26-35 years, had completed upper secondary or vocational certificates, had 1-5 years of work tenure, worked in shift schedules, had received occupational health and safety training, and had information. Overall, occupational health literacy was at a “very good” level in both groups, except for the information access dimension among Myanmar migrant workers, which was at a “fair” level. 2) Comparisons between groups showed statistically significant differences at the 0.05 significance level in sex, age, educational level, monthly income, alcohol consumption, underlying health conditions, work tenure, weekly working hours, all five categories of occupational health hazard exposure, the receipt of occupational health and safety training, and information. Comparisons of occupational health literacy scores showed no statistically significant differences in overall scores, except for the information utilization and communication dimension, which differed significantly at the 0.05 significance level, with Thai workers having higher median scores than Myanmar migrant workers. and 3) Within-group comparisons revealed that Thai workers with different educational levels had statistically significant differences in occupational health literacy scores at the 0.05 significance level. Among Myanmar migrant workers, different shift work schedules and different self-reported physical health hazard exposure had statistically significant differences in occupational health literacy scores at the 0.05 significance level.