OBJECTIVE. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and incidence of occupational injuries in the Philippines.

METHODS. Data were collected from various agencies, namely, Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics (BLES) of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Labor Force Survey of National Statistics Office, Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHC), National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) under Department of Health (DOH), Overseas Employment Statistics (OES) of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), and International Labor Organization (ILO). Hospital-based data and surveys were also used in this study.

RESULTS. The study revealed about 358,000 fatal and 337 million non-fatal occupational accidents occurring around the world. In the Philippines, there were 22,65 cases of occupational injury in 2003 and 47,235 cases in 2007. The manufacturing industries registered the highest number of cases. The reported cases of occupational injury resulted in 178 deaths in 2000 and 116 deaths in 2007. As for the frequency rate of injury, it was estimated to occur at six injury cases per 500 full-time workers. In the following years, the frequency rate of injury declined to 4.07 in 2003, and further declined to 2.79 in 2007. Superficial injuries and open wounds were the most common type of injury in 2000, 2003 and 2007. Acute poisoning and infections rapidly increased by 2.39 times from 2003 to 2007. Other serious injuries reported were burns, corrosions, scalds, and frostbites, with 2,065 cases reported in 2007. In 2007, 1839 cases of fracture were reported. Based on hospital records, a total of 9,521 injury cases were reported in 2007. In 2007, 1,839 cases of fracture were reported. Based on hospital records, a total of 9,521 injury cases were reported for the first quarter of 2010 at 77 government and private hospitals in the country. Most injuries were sustained on the road (44.4%) and work-related injuries were reported at 7.8%.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION. The data showed that occupational injury is prevalent and presents a problem in the country. It is suggested that data collection on occupational injuries be performed on a national scale, and3not merely through the random collection of data for small, medium and large industries. Data on occupational safety and health should also include the agricultural sector, the informal sector, and small enterprises.

Human ; Male ; Female ; Occupational Injuries ; Accidents, Occupational ; Incidence ; Occupational Health ; Prevalence ; Corrosion ; Philippines ; Informal Sector ; Polyoxyethyleneamine ; Hospital Records ; Trauma Centers ; Industry ; Burns ; Frostbite ; Manufacturing Industry ; Employment ; Hospitals, Private

OBJECTIVES: This study looked into the state of occupational health and safety in the country. Specifically, the objectives were 1) to show to current condition of workers, both local and migrant, in terms of their workplace conditions and hazard exposures; and 2) to present occupational diseases and illnesses in various industries and occupational groupings in the Philippines.

METHODS: Data were gathered using documentary research targeting agencies that deal with occupational safety and health in the Philippines in terms of occupational diseases, injuries, and accidents, and existing occupational health and safety policies.

RESULTS: The study revealed occupational hazards and health and safety conditions in various industries, occupational settings, and job groupings such as in the industrial sector, manufacturing, mining, agriculture, fishing, and cement manufacturing. It also looked into small-scale and informal industries such as tanning, laundry work, and pyrotechnics manufacture. Special segments of the labor force including women workers, child laborers and migrant workers were also covered.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: In all these sectors and industries, the stdy found attendant occupational diseases and injuries from occupational hazards. In general, OSH in the Philippines requires further improvements in data collection, coverage of industries and occupational sectors, and dissemination to both public and private sectors.

Human ; Male ; Female ; Occupational Health ; Workplace ; Transients And Migrants ; Private Sector ; Philippines ; Occupational Injuries ; Occupational Diseases ; Mining ; Industry ; Accidents ; Agriculture

OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to present the data on the frequency and severity of natural disasters in the Philippines, the common diseases in affected communities after a natural disaster, the immediate health effects after a natural disaster and the preceding environmental risk factors, as well as evaluation scheme for pre- and post- disaster management in the Philippines.

METHODS: Data were gathered from local and international agencies dealing with epidemics diseases and health emergencies related to natural disasters. Critical analysis was done in order to come up with an evaluation scheme on both ex ante risk reduction, and ex post disaster response.

RESULTS: The study showed that there are immediate adverse health effects of natural disasters. Drought brings about protein malnutrition; earthquakes can cause crush injuries; and fires can cause poor air quality. The study showed that the most common communicable diseases arisng from disasters and emergencies include diarrhea, acute respiratory infection, measles, and malaria. In the international scene, cholera, diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, measles, meningitis, tetanus, diarrhea, leptospirosis, acute respiratory syndrome, coccidiomycosis, and malaria were reported to be the major epidemics after certain types of natural disaster.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: There are several recommendations proposed in this study for disaster management such as integration of permanent LGU disaster risk management, better coordination among agencies involved in disaster management, strengthened vertical and horizontal integration of disaster risk reduction plans, creation of an overall framework that integrates environmental issues with disaster management strategies, documentation, evaluation and replication of successful local disaster prevention and management strategies, and coordination with health units, and economic development units. The Philippines is challenged to come up with and implement a comprehensive disaster preparedness and mitigation measures for disasters and epidemics.

Human ; Male ; Female ; Earthquakes ; Cholera ; Hepatitis A ; Tetanus ; Emergencies ; Droughts ; Risk Factors ; Economic Development ; Philippines ; Disasters ; Communicable Diseases ; Measles ; Malaria ; Meningitis ; Risk Management ; International Agencies ; Diarrhea ; Leptospirosis ; Respiratory Tract Infections ; Documentation ; Risk Reduction Behavior ; Crush Injuries ; Malnutrition ; Air Pollution

Philippines ; Accidents ; Organizations

Introduction: In the Philippines, data on road traffic injuries show that road injury is the 11th leading cause of premature deaths in the Philippines. The World Health Organization estimates that 1.24 million die globally due to road traffic crashes. Objectives: This study aimed to show the trend of the road crash situation in Metro Manila, Philippines, over eleven years (2005–2015) and to analyze human error and other associated hazard factors for road crashes. Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of an 11-year database culled from 2005–2015, for Metro Manila, Philippines. The variables included road crash classification, incidence over months and time of the day, road crash disaggregated by location, region, and city, and type of vehicle. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the incidence of a road crash, road crash fatalities, and risk factors associated with a road crash in Metro Manila. Results: The incidence of road crashes in Metro Manila has increased from 65,111 in 2005 to 95,615 in 2015. Fatalities also increased from 348 to 536. The most predominant type of vehicle involved in road crashes were cars from 46% to 67%, followed by jeepneys, vans, and motorcycles. The most commonly reported human errors were speeding, inattentive and bad turning. The reported percentage of speeding from 2005–2010 ranged between 32% and 58%. In 2014, speeding (96%) was the most reported human error among the other reported errors; such as inattentiveness (range, 28 to 41%) and bad turning (0.6% and 33%). Fatigue and traffic violation made up 0.02% to 0.45% of the reported human factors of road crash-related hospitalization cases in Metro Manila for the period. Suspected alcohol use accounted for 0.04% to 4.57% of the human errors reported. For non-fatal and fatal crashes, the associated human errors were suspected alcohol use, inattentiveness, and speeding. The highest adjusted residual for both fatal and non-fatal (injurious) crashes was for inattentiveness. Human error was associated with years, suggesting that for some years, the number of crashes caused by human errors is significantly higher than expected. Alcohol-suspected crashes are significantly higher than expected for 2005 and 2011, with 2011 having the highest adjusted residual. Inattentiveness-caused crashes were significantly higher than expected for years 2005 to 2010, with 2007 having the highest adjusted residual. Bad turning was significantly higher from 2005 to 2007; while disobedience was significantly higher for 2005 to 2008. Speeding was significantly higher than expected from 2005 to 2010. Conclusion There is a need to address the public health concern posed by road crashes in Metro Manila, as well as to rectify the ergonomically related risk factors and human error components in a road crash.
Risk Factors

Introduction: Road traffic accidents are a growing public health burden, especially in the low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). With resource scarcity, road traffic injuries may lead to poor quality of life among survivors, or deaths at worst. Victims of crashes involving transportations are gendered; therefore, there may be differences in the trends and characteristics of injuries sustained by men and women related to road crash. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the factors related to severity of road crashes among women road users in the Philippines from 2008 to 2017. Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of clinical records of women patients involved in road crash at the Trauma Division, Department of Surgery of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) for the ten-year period, January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2017. Data were extracted from the electronic patient records in Integrated Surgical Information System (ISIS). Results: From 2008 to 2017, 926 of the road crash victims brought to PGH were women. There was an increasing trend, with the years 2015 to 2017 accounting for half of the total cases (55.62%). The highest cases of women patient admissions were also recorded during the months of June and July (5.61%). The CALABARZON region (11.23%) and National Capital Region (8.21%) had the highest admissions. The patients were most commonly pedestrians (12.20%) and involved in collisions (13.50%) or vehicle involvement (13.17%). The most common vehicle involved was a motorcycle (9.72%) followed by car and vans (1.62%). Only a small proportion of women patients used helmets (3.33%) and seatbelts (0.12%). The median length of hospital stay of women patients was 5 days. The most commonly sustained injuries among patients were multiple (83.65%), external (43.72%), extremity (33.15%), head and neck (23.47%), and face (21.58%) injuries. Among these, injuries to the extremity had the highest average length of hospital stay (16.04 ± 31.28 days) while external and head and neck injuries had the shortest (10.81 ± 33.42 days). Multinomial regression showed that women patients who suffered from head and neck, and abdominal injuries had increased odds of dying by 4.94 times (CI: 2.158-11.302, p < 0.05), and 3.33 times (CI:1.235-9.02, p < 0.05), respectively, compared to those who did not suffer said injuries. Conclusion There is a significant number of women involved in road crashes in the Philippines, and therefore, there is a need for directed policies on female road users as vulnerable road users.
Accidents ; Women ; Motor Vehicles ; Length of Stay ; Hospitalization

Introduction: Road traffic injuries are among the leading causes of preventable death, claiming around 7000 lives every year. Furthermore, road traffic can injure or disable thousands more every year in the Philippines. Objectives: This study determined the hospital length-of-stay patterns and risk factors for a prolonged length of stay in a tertiary hospital after road traffic injury. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted to determine the determinants of the length of stay in the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) among road traffic injury victims for the year 2016. Length of stay was recorded according to the median. The other variables were cross-tabulated against the length of stay, and each of their crude odds ratios along with corresponding p-values were presented. Continuous variables were analyzed using Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney U-test. The predictor model for the determinants of prolonged length of stay in the hospital was built using forward selection. Likelihood-ratio test was used to compare the model with and without the exposure variable. Results: A total of 427 road traffic injury victims were admitted to the Philippine General Hospital in 2016. The mean age of the patients was 31.55 years (±14.97) with a median age of 29 years. The majority of patients were males (82.4%) and single (60.8%). Most patients were riding a motorcycle during the time of the accident (64.2%) while 20% were pedestrians. The majority of the victims were intoxicated (74.3%) and were not using helmets (57.1%) at the time of the accident. Most of the victims received first aid (69.2%) and the mean time of admission was 3.03 (±13.31) days while the median time to admission was 12 hours. Receiving first aid (p<0.01), availed services (p<0.01), and married civil status (p=0.04) were found to be strongly associated with length of hospital stay. Without controlling for any confounders, pay patients (OR = 3.46, 95% CI: 1.3, -9.87), elective patients (OR = 7.88, 95% CI: 2.64, 31.61), and those in non-trauma wards (OR=2.07, 95% CI: 1.29, 3.36) had higher odds for longer hospitalization stay. On the other hand, those who did not receive first aid (OR = 0.55, CI:0.35, 0.85) had lower odds for prolonged hospitalization. Those who suffered face injury and did not suffer external injuries had a higher mean rank, suggesting a longer length of hospital stay. On the other hand, upon controlling variables found to be associated with previous studies, those with low Glasgow coma scale (GCS) scores were 2.77 times (95% CI: 1.13, 6.91) more likely to stay longer in the hospital. Conclusion The type of victim, mortality status, age, and sex were found to be important determinants of prolonged hospitalization. To lessen the number of fatalities and road trauma injuries, laws on road safety should be strictly and properly implemented. Shared responsibility of all road users is also important in improving the safe usage of roads.
Length of Stay ; Accidents, Traffic ; Wounds and Injuries

Introduction: Globally, the number of people who die from road crashes continues to rise, reaching a high of 1.35 million in 2016. Due to this continued increase in fatalities and injuries within the road transport system, especially in low- and middle-income countries, 2011 to 2020 was declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010 as the Decade of Action for Road Safety. Objectives: This study looked into the epidemiology of road crashes and injuries in Metro Manila over ten years, from 2008-2017, from data gathered at the Department of Surgery of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). Method: A retrospective review of patients’ clinical records was conducted to describe the epidemiology of road crash cases in the Trauma Division, Department of Surgery of the PGH. Clinical records of the road crash patients admitted to the division over the ten years, January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2017, were extracted from the Integrated Surgical Information System (ISIS). Results: A total of 422 patients were admitted to the PGH Department of Surgery and recorded in the ISIS database, from 2008 to 2017, who suffered from road crashes in Metro Manila. Most of these patients (80.8%) were male. The mean age of patients was 32.4 years. The highest number of admissions (27.5%) and road crash deaths (6.9%) were in 2016; the highest number was from the city of Manila (26.7%), and most happened at nighttime (61.8%) between 6:00 PM and 5:59 AM. Throughout the years, motorcycle (52.8%) was the vehicle type involved. Among patients with helmet use information, 65.4% were not wearing helmets, 91.2% had a history of alcohol intake. The majority incurred multiple injuries (82.7%), with the external region (53.8%) as the most common. Patients who sustained injuries to their head and neck region were five times more likely to die and six times more likely to have an unchanged patient outcome than those who did not have these injuries. Patients who had a GCS of 8 and below or those who had severe brain injuries were eight times more likely to die and six times more likely to have an unchanged patient outcome. Conclusion This study looked into the epidemiology of road crash cases admitted to the Surgery Department of the PGH. Road crash injuries and deaths remain a growing concern among the citizens of Metro Manila. It is hoped that the results of this study will provide policymakers with an objective and data-driven perspective on road crashes.
Accidents ; Patients

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the research study were to determine ethical guidelines and principles applicable in the practice and research of eHealth and telehealth in the Philippines, how these are applicable to the Philippines, and to differentiate between the ethical issues in research and in clinical practice of eHealth.

METHODS: This research study used: 1) review of ethics manuscripts, guidelines and literature; 2) focused group discussion and key informant interviews of experts; and 3) triangulation. The information sought for the review were- 1) relevant policies, guidelines in eHealth that are pertinent to the discussion of eHealth ethics in the Philippines; 2) components of ethics in eHealth research; and 3) components of ethics in eHealth practice. The framework of the consultation with experts was to identify mechanisms and strategies in incorporating ethics in both eHealthpractice and eHealth research within the following- 1) in reference to existing laws, policies, and guidelines on ethics in medicine and health; and 2) in the context of the Philippine setting.

RESULTS: Based on the review, there are pertinent codes of ethics, applicable laws, policies and guidelines in eHealth, both in the international and local settings. The focus group discussion and key informant interview with experts yielded significant and deeper understanding on how to address the gaps and lapses of ethics applied to eHealth in the country. These recommendations were given which distinguish between the ethics in clinical practice and ethics in the planning and implementation of eHealth systems. There is also a need to resolve the problem of whose primary responsibility the patient is- the referring, commonly referred to as the attending physician in the local community, or the specialist from the center. The proposed resolution was also presented.

CONCLUSION: The study has shown how important eHealth in potentially promoting timely and improved health care access. However, there are still lapses and gaps in the implementation of policies and guidelines on and relating to eHealth in the Philippines as shown by the data culled from the review and the focus group discussions with the experts. With more specific ethical guidelines and relevant policies, the development and practice of eHealth and telehealth will be on its way in bridging the gap and aiding in health systems development in the Philippines, especially with the support of the national government and collaboration of various agencies and stakeholders.

Human ; Federal Government ; Focus Groups ; Codes Of Ethics ; Philippines ; Telemedicine ; Delivery Of Health Care ; Referral And Consultation