Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Effect of Occupational Factors on the Quality of Life of Workers in Governmental and Non-Governmental Sectors in Southeastern Nigeria

Maxwell O Adibe , Chukwuemeka M Ubaka, Patrick O Udeogaranya, Nneka U Igboeli, Kelechi A Abraham-Igwe

Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Management, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nsukka 410001, Nigeria;

For correspondence:- Maxwell Adibe Email: maxolpharmacia@yahoo.com Tel:+2348037781479

Received: 4 December 2012 Accepted: 2 January 2014 Published: 20 February 2014

Citation: Adibe MO, Ubaka CM, Udeogaranya PO, Igboeli NU, Abraham-Igwe KA. Effect of Occupational Factors on the Quality of Life of Workers in Governmental and Non-Governmental Sectors in Southeastern Nigeria. Trop J Pharm Res 2014; 13(2):287-293 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v13i2.19

© 2014 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the effect of occupational factors on quality of life (QOL) of workers in Governmental and non-Governmental sectors in southeastern Nigeria.

Methods: A total of 2025 workers (both governmental and non-governmental sectors) were selected from across five southeastern states of Nigeria by convenient sampling. The Medical Outcomes Survey Short Form-36 (SF-36) alongside twenty closed questions was administered to the two groups of respondents to assess their quality of life and determine other factors that affected their quality of life.

Results: Having a job that is tasking (r = -0.209, p < 0.05) contributed significantly to low Physical Component Summary (PCS ) in non-governmental sector but having job that raises enough finances for one’s comfort (r = 0.228, p < 0.05) impacted positively on their PCS. Being overly stressed by the job (r = -0.225, p < 0.01) was the only factor that significantly impacted negatively on Mental Component Summary (MCS) of respondents in Governmental sector while having a job that exposes one to a lot of health risk (r = -0.269, p < 0.01, having a job that is tasking (r = -0.206, p < 0.05) and having the belief that there are spiritual forces responsible for the challenges one is facing (r = -0.249, p < 0.05) accounted for decrease in MCS of respondents in non-Governmental sector.

Conclusion: Occupational factors had more negative impact on the quality of life of respondents in non-Governmental sector than their counterparts in Governmental sector of the economy.

Keywords: Quality of life, Occupation, Governmental sector, Non-governmental sector, Nigerian workers, Medical outcomes survey