WITHDRAWN: Employees’ Occupational Health and Safety Awareness in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract Background: Occupational hazards are extremely pervasive and preventive community-related incidents occurring in occupations all over the world. In fact, the majority of developed countries impose national policies to provide their employees with Occupational Health and Safety (OHAS) guidelines and recommendations to avoid these hazards. Maintaining and monitoring employee health through following (OHAS) laws in turn has a positive impact on the economic status of the country. Our study was conducted in Riyadh, KSA to fill a research gap on OHAS in the country, and to collect evidence-based OHAS recommendations by focusing on three main occupational health domains: stress, musculoskeletal and respiratory symptoms.Methods: A validated structured questionnaire was administered on a cross-section of 319 randomly selected employees aged 18 - 64 years in Riyadh for two weeks in Oct 2018. The survey was conducted on site of 11 locations for different occupations. Information was sought on their socio-demographic characteristics, first aid training and their awareness of major occupational illnesses; stress, respiratory and musculoskeletal disorders. Factors such as underlying diseases and confounding factors such as smoking were also taken into consideration.Results: A total of 319 employees were surveyed from eleven occupational backgrounds. Among all the involved workplaces only 51.3% of them offered First Aid training for the employees. The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders was 24.1% for weakness followed by 16% for pain. Around 70% of respondents denied suffering from stress at work, neither experiencing stress- related symptoms such as headache, sleeplessness or anxiety attacks as a result of their work.Conclusion: This student-led community engaging study aimed to evaluate employees’ awareness of illnesses related to their occupations and their practices to prevent them. Under the supervision of College of Medicine faculty members at Alfaisal University,1st and 3rd year medical students visited different worksites including schools, dental clinics, car shops, airport terminals, and others to present a brief presentation to promote occupational health and safety proceeded by the distribution of a brief survey. Although musculoskeletal, respiratory and mental illnesses are commonly observed occupation- related complaints, yet this wasn’t evident in our study. This could be explained by employees’ lack of awareness or fear of reporting their health concerns. This observed gap in our study will help in recommending national guidelines to promote occupational health and safety across different occupations.