Sadika Sharmin
Department of Rural Sociology, Bangladesh Agricultural University 2202, Bangladesh and Programme in Nutrition, School of Health Science, University Sains Malaysia 16150
Noor Aman Hamid
Deapartment of Community Medicine, School of Medical Science, University Sains Malaysia 16150
Wan Abdul Manan Bin Wan Muda
Programme in Nutrition, School of Health Science, University Sains Malaysia 16150
Health related quality of life, Food security, Nutritional status, Women, Garment workers
Dhaka and Gazipur cities, Bangadesh
Food Safety and Security
Study design and sample: A cross-sectional study has been conducted in this survey. The data collection has taken a total of seven months, within the period from February to August, 2014. The reason behind selecting Dhaka and Gazipur cities as these two cities are most densely areas having garment factories (Mottaleb and Sonobe, 2011). The inclusion criteria for the selection of garment factories are: (i) must have female workers, (ii) factory should be well-constructed i.e. do not have poor infrastructure, and (iii) should have all sections associated with the composition of fabric (from cutting to folding). The author has used the records of garment factories located in Dhaka and Gazipur. Records have been collected from BGMEA office, Dhaka. The total numbers of garment factories in Dhaka have been found as 780, and 694 in Gazipur at that time. In total twenty factories have been selected for data collection purpose. However, for the selection of the garment factories in each city, purposive sampling has been carried out (Lucas, 2014). Three sections namely the sewing, quality control and finishing have been selected as these are the most female concentrated sectors. The inclusion criteria for the study participants are: 1) all participants must be women 2) their age range from 19 to 40 years old. Female workers who are suffered from physical health problems as fever, cough and common cold, continuous headache and also pregnant workers are excluded as they are not physically fit enough to be respondents. One of the objectives of the work is to measure the food insecurity of the female workers including food insecurity of their offspring, so, the researcher has selected 19-40 years age range suited for the most productive age variety for female workers. Usually the workers get married at an early age and after 40 years, very few are able to continue their jobs (Akhtar et al., 2019). Otherwise, the minimum age limit is 18 years for any type of hazardous works referred by International Labour Organization Convention 138 (International Labour Organization Convention 138, 1973). The twenty factories which are included for the study purpose also follow the rule of not recruiting labours below 18 years old. Moreover, most female participants at 18 years old work as trainee has been found in the factories. They are not so familiar with the working environment and other vulnerabilities faced by the workers. So, the researcher starts the age criteria from 19 years old. Twenty-two respondents from nineteen factories and sixteen participants from one factory have been selected to make the sample size 434. The respondents have been selected using the convenience sampling. Through the convenience sampling, a sample is drawn from a group of people who are easy to contact (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2012). A single proportion formula has been applied to figure the sample size for food insecure women garment factory workers: (1.96/Δ)2 P(1-P). The required sample size has been calculated for logistic regression analysis: n=20k/P (Peduzzi et al., 1996), k= number of independent variable, P= Percent from the previous study
n=20x16/0.85=376.47˜376, After including 20% dropout=376+75.2=451.2˜ 451 (to measure food insecurity), The estimated sample size has been calculated for the linear regression analysis: n=10k (k=number of variable) (Norman and Streiner, 2008), n=10x14=140, After including 10% dropout: 140+14=154 (to measure nutritional status), n=10k=10x16=160, After including 10% dropout: 160+16=176 (to measure quality of life), Although the highest number of sample size is 451, the researcher has limited the sample size to 434 due to the limitation of time and resources. The insertion and elimination criterias both for the factories and respondents have been followed strictly. The workers’ information and consent forms have been given to the participants to obtain their permissions to be involved in this study. The purpose of visiting the factories has been explained to the high officials and management before data collection. The objectives of the study have also been explained to the management of the factories. Statistical analysis. The collected data have been analyzed using Statistical. Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0. Descriptive statistics have been used to check for missing data. Basic characteristics of the respondents with anthropometric measurements, and data gathered through Cornell-Radimer questionnaire and SF-36 questionnaire have been tested for normality. As the distributions of all variables are normal, parametric tests have been performed. When analysed, continuous variables have been presented in means with standard deviations, and categorical data have been expressed as a frequency with percentages. Independent t-test has been applied to compare the mean distribution of quality of life of food secure and insecure female garment factory workers and with waist circumference categories. The one way ANOVA has been applied to determine the mean distribution of quality of life in body mass index (BMI). Bonferroni or Dunnett C corrections have been applied to compare among the significant groups (Bachok, 2011).
J Bangladesh Agril Univ 18(2): 492–501, 2020 ISSN 1810-3030 (Print) 2408-8684 (Online)
Journal