Occupational risk factors for acute fatigue symptoms among Indonesian beverage industry workers

Fatigue is a common problem among working population. However, little is known about the association between occupational risk factors and acute fatigue symptoms, particularly in those working in developing countries. The study aims to identify occupational risk factors for acute fatigue symptoms among Indonesian beverage industry workers. Using validated self-administered questionnaires, 173 Indonesian beverage industry workers in various occupations (machine operator, forklift operator, salesmen/riders, and drivers) reported individual (age, gender, years of work, occupation, and smoking status), physical (working in sitting position, hand above shoulder, bent trunk, using vibrating hand tools, whole body vibration and lifting), psychosocial (effort, reward, over commitment, job satisfaction and work stress), and organisational (employment status and shift work) work factors. Acute fatigue symptoms was assessed by 5 validated questions using 7-likert scale, scored 0 to 6. A final acute fatigue symptoms calculated as the sum of score to the 5 questions, divided by 30, then multiplied by 100. These data were analysed by multivariate linear regression. Acute fatigue symptoms was associated with occupations, i.e. salesmen/riders (11.00, 95% CI 4.03-17.96) and drivers (7.36, 95% CI 0.76-13.95), sitting > 4 hours per day (7.92, 95% CI 2.18-13.65), lifting > 20kg (17.40, 95% CI 8.19-26.60), low over commitment (-7.49, 95% CI -12.23-(-2.74), and work stress (15.26, 95% CI 5.28-25.25). Interventions to reduce acute fatigue symptoms should be applied to both physical (sitting and lifting) and psychosocial factors (over commitment and work stress) with focus on salesmen/riders and drivers.