Health Lifestyle among Agricultural Workers in Prachuabkirikhan Province

• Main Authors: Pipat Luksamijarulkul, Kitiphong Hancharoen, Orawan Kaewbunchu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Prince of Songkla University 2015-04-01
• Series: Journal of Health Science and Medical Research (JHSMR)
• Subjects: agricultural workers; health lifestyle; related factors
• Online Access: https://www.jhsmr.org/index.php/jhsmr/article/view/177
• ISSN: 2586-9981; 2630-0559

The change of lifestyle in the globalization era may affect human health. Data towards health lifestyle status among Thai population, especially agricultural workers are limited. This study attempted to assess the health lifestyle status among agricultural workers in Prachuabkirikhan Province. The study involved 340 voluntary agricultural workers, male and female with age 20 years and over. All participants were interviewed with a structured questionnaire towards socio-demographic characteristics, personal health history, and health lifestyle. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square test at a=0.05. Results revealed that most of studied agricultural workers aged 31-59 years and finished only the primary education. Almost 66% had own farm. For personal health history and health lifestyle, it was found that 40% had history of underlying diseases including heart disease and hypertension, DM, asthma and allergy, 97.1% had no history of extramarital sex relation in the last year, 89.1% had no history of injecting drug use or smoking, and 75.9% had no history of regular alcohol consumption. Only 22.4% had regular exercise (3-5 times per week, 30 minutes and over), 46.8% had good stress management, and 49.7% had optimal dietary. Overall mean score of health lifestyle was 14.2±1.8 (Maximun=18, Minimum=6). About 55.1% had high score level and 42.3% had moderate score level. Additionally, the association between studied variables and the high score level of health lifestyle was analyzed, the result found that only the personal health history towards underlying diseases was significantly associated with the high score level of health lifestyle, p<0.0001. Agricultural workers who had no history of underlying diseases had the probability of having high score level of health lifestyle than those who had history of underlying diseases 124.9 times (OR=124.9, 95% CI=57.2-272.7). Health promotion empowerment should be strengthened to improve healthy lifestyle.