Awareness among barbers about health hazards associated with their profession.

BACKGROUND Barbers are important professionals of the community which are still owned, cared and financed by the community especially the rural one. Barbers besides performing duties in social events like marriage, circumcision etc is also responsible for hair and nail cutting. In urban settings they have developed their profession by incorporating facial massage and make-up. It is the need of their profession to utilize instruments like knife, blades etc. The objective of the study was to assess awareness among barbers regarding health hazards related to their profession and to identify professional practices linked with infection transmission. METHODS This descriptive cross sectional study was conducted in Kharian city of district Gujrat, located almost mid-way between Lahore and Islamabad, from June 2003 to September 2003. Sample of 50 barbers were selected by simple random sampling technique. Data was collected by using a semi-structured questionnaire and a checklist. Data was analyzed using SPSS 10. RESULTS The mean age of barbers interviewed was 33.3 years with SD +/- 8.3. It was found that 29 (58%) barbers denied about any health hazards associated with their profession whereas 21 (42%) had knew about hepatitis, AIDS; they also described the role of contaminated blades, clips, towels, apron, and combs in causing skin problems. It was observed that 90% of barbers did not wash hands, 80% did not change the apron, 66% did not change towel during barbering services to different customers. Besides 7 (14%) barbers were also performing minor surgeries like circumcision, in growing toe nail excision and abscess drainage. There was significant difference in level of awareness among barbers in respect of age; educational status and duration of working. Age group (15-25) had better knowledge about the health hazards than barbers in age group (26-50). There is a significant difference (p < 0.05) in the awareness of those who got formal education. As for the effect of media on the knowledge of these workers, it was observed that 78% of them had the access to TV and out of these 69% had significant knowledge about health hazards related to barbering profession. CONCLUSION The level of knowledge among barbers about health hazards associated with their profession is very poor. Majority of them do not have any perception of unhealthy working practices in barbering. Awareness about threat of receiving hazardous infection from their customers is also unsatisfactory.