Assessment of health and safety status of public senior high school teachers in Eastern Region, Ghana

Abstract

Every profession has its own occupational health problems due to the kind of job performed. High job demands (E.g. discipline problems, teaching preparation, etc.) associated with teaching profession makes it a stressful occupation with a lot of occupational health challenges. And since the introduction of a flagship programme; the Free SHS in 2017 by the government of Ghana, students’ enrolment has jumped from 36% (2016) to 62.6 % (2019) with inadequate teachers being one of the major factors facing it. This has increased and intensified already existing job demands and occupational health problems among second cycle school teachers. Therefore, this study sought to assess the health and safety status of public S.H.S. teachers in the Eastern Region of Ghana. A quantitative field survey was employed and data were collected using an online questionnaire. The data were analyzed using central tendency, standard deviation, frequencies and percentages. The study found that, public S.H.S. teachers have increasing level of NCDs (hypertension, diabetes, and other heart or heart-related condition), poor health condition and female teachers experiencing poorer health condition with higher NCDs as compared to male teachers. This showed that the health conditions of public S.H.S. teachers were worsening, hence serious health interventions like health promotion workshops and programme, and regular medical checkups were recommended.