Food habit and health problems among brick field workers in Cox’s Bazar district, Bangladesh

Brick bricks are an unsafe and dangerous workplace. The type of work exposes employees to hazardous environments and working conditions. The workers here work in an unhygienic and unsafe condition, that affects their dietary consumption and nutritional status. This study is a comprehensive nationally representative study which aimed to assess the food habit and health problems of brick field workers in Cox’s Bazar district, Bangladesh. It was a cross-sectional descriptive type of study which was conducted at Cox’s Bazar brick field with participation of 126 randomly selected brick field workers who were working in the selected brick field for more than a year. For this study, their food habit and health profile data were collected and data was analyzed using SPSS software. Brickfield workers work under high physical and biomechanical pressure for a long time (8-9 hours). Among all the 126 workers, protein consumption was found very poor and most of the workers usually skipped their breakfast. Majority of them were suffering from back pain and many of them had muscle pain, weakness and common cold. Overall Key aspects derived from the study. Example, Overall, 2 in 10 workers consumed protein rich food regularly and two-fifth of them were suffering from back pain due to heavy workload. The workers should be provided food and health service for their better nutrition and health condition so that some decent work can be ensured.