Relationship Between Job Satisfaction and Occupational Health among Nutmeg Production Workers in Grenada, The Caribbean

Background and Objective: The nutmeg industry is a major contributor to the island of Grenada's economy. The goal of this study was to investigate the job satisfaction at the largest nutmeg processing plant. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a standardized questionnaire (including demographics, occupational history, symptoms, and job satisfaction) was offered to 92 workers. The job satisfaction section included health and safety needs, economic and family needs, social needs, actualization needs, knowledge needs, and aesthetics needs. Mann-Whitney U test was used to analyze the data. Results: Participation rate was 93.5%. The workers were mostly female (74.0%) with a mean age of 48.3±8.1 years. The most common lower and upper respiratory symptoms were dry cough (49.4%), shortness of breath (42.9%) and sneezing (66.3%). Approximately half of these symptoms had a work-related pattern. Male workers were significantly less satisfied on the social needs component of working conditions (p<0.05). Significantly less health and safety, social, and actualization needs of working conditions was reported among part-time workers (p<0.05). Sorting workers, who had the highest dust exposure, were significantly less satisfied on actualization, knowledge, and aesthetic needs of working conditions (p<0.05). Some of the existing lower and upper respiratory symptoms were found to be significantly related to job satisfaction categories. Conclusions: Our findings are among the first to describe job satisfaction and occupational health issues in this industry. High prevalence of low job satisfaction among part-time workers and/or sorting workers demonstrated poor working conditions. Decreased job satisfaction was related to occupational health problems.