Factors and respiratory complications among traffic polices in Dhaka City

Abstract

Purpose: To know some respiratory complications and associated findings among traffic police in Dhaka city. Objectives: To find out the association of some respiratory complications with selected socio demographic variable among traffic polices in Dhaka city. To identify mostly affected ranked people among traffic police. To know the percentages of respiratory complications by the ratio of age. Methodology: The study design was cross-sectional. The sample size was 203 and the researcher collected 113 due to time limitation and the lack of funding. Convenience sampling technique was used for sample selection from the several traffic police box of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP). All data were collected through face-to-face interview by using St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire. The data was analyzed through descriptive statistics by using table, pie chart and bar chart by SPSS software version 25. Results: Among 113 participants traffic inspectors were 6.19% (N=7), sergeants were 22.12% (N= 25), sub inspectors were 7.96% (N= 9), assistant sub inspectors were 10.62% (N= 12) and constables were 53.10% (N= 60). All the participants were male in gender. Among the participants, n=64 (56.6%) had coughing at the time of their work, n=72 (63.7%) felt restlessness in their working time and n=65 (57.5%) felt chest heaviness at the working time & most of them rank was constable level. Among the participants only 4 participants were taken physiotherapy treatment. This study found the association between rank and some respiratory complications such as coughing, breathlessness. In this study, the lowest SGRQ score of the participant was 32 and the highest SGRQ score was 52. Conclusion: Study findings show that there is a substantial difference in the risk of studied respiratory symptoms between different categories of traffic police jobs. The results of the study suggests that low rank traffic polices are in the most vulnerable situation among all the participants. The effect of pollution by vehicular exhausts may be responsible for these pulmonary function impairments. But everybody of the participants claimed in one sentence that this poisonous environment can take them to their big health hazards such as heart problem and lung cancer. Key words: Traffic Police, Dhaka City, Respiratory Complications, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP). ABSTRACT