International Journal of Pharmaceutical Science and Research 24 International Journal of Pharmaceutical Science and Research ISSN: 2455-4685; Impact Factor: RJIF 5.28 Received: 25-05-2020; Accepted: 10-05-2020; Published: 26-06-2020 www.pharmacyjournal.net Volume 5; Issue 2; 2020; Page No. 24-27 Health consciousness among building construction workers: A survey in Mymensingh, Jamalpur and Gopalganj district in Bangladesh Md Arman Ali 1 , Muhammad Torequl Islam 2* , Md Shafiqul Islam 3 1-3 Department of Pharmacy, Life Science Faculty, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University, Gopalganj (Dhaka), Bangladesh Abstract Background: Construction industries are one of the major employment sectors in the modern industrialized world. The construction workers, contributing their best efforts by taking life risk are not free from health challenges. Aim: This study aimed to sketch the health consciousness of building construction workers among three districts in Bangladesh. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out among 337 male building construction workers currently working on different construction sites in Mymensingh, Jamalpur and Gopalganj district in Bangladesh. For this, data were collected by direct interview using a prefixed questionnaire during the month of July 2018 to June 2019. Results: The findings suggest that 82.2% respondents had a poor level of health awareness, even they did not know their blood group. In case of sudden minor cuts or wounds 46.0%, 26.7% and 23.1% of respondents were found to use old cloth, meadow grass or arums stem sap, and antiseptics, respectively. For general illness 87.8%, while for sudden diarrhea 84.9% of the workers took over-the-counter medications from the local pharmacy. About 90.2% and 64.1% of the respondents did not use soap/detergent for washing hands before meal and after defecation, respectively. About 49.9% of the respondents were identified as chain smoker, although they have good knowledge about the harmful effects of smoking, as well as the benefits of having a balanced diet. Conclusion: The construction workers found in the survey areas have severe lacking in daily hygiene practice. Adequate precautions should be taken to increase health awareness among the construction workers. Keywords: public health; construction workers; drug abuse; smoking behavior Introduction Workers, the heart of an industry and are the most fundamental part of the total work force in a society that leads to the ultimate collective development in all sectors worldwide (Božić et al., 2017) [3] . Their contribution is the prime driver for the development of any agro-based developing nation (Bhuiyan and Haq, 2008) [2] . The economy of Bangladesh is being flourished in an unresisted pace, where each drop of sweat of workers is supplying the fuel for the journey by various means as it is experiencing a rapid urbanization and industrialization and economy at a rapid pace where large infrastructural projects and new initiatives in the energy sector play a vigorous role (United Nation, 2018). In Bangladesh, the construction sector is one of the established, growing sectors in the world and construction labor constitutes 7.5% of the world labor force (Shah and Tiwari, 2010) [12] . Construction industry creates a large number of employment opportunities and established itself as a one of the vital industries. Excessive industrialization and recent development programs provide the scope for the construction industry to play a pivotal role in the construction of buildings, roads, bridges, and so on. In Bangladesh, GDP from construction industry increased to 539.90 million (BDT) from 2016 to 2017 (Trading Economics). Sectorial share of GDP at constant prices 2017-18(p) construction 7.53 (The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics 2017-2018). However, this class of workers is playing a vibrant role in the economy by taking the risk of their lives. Generally, they are struggling in order to improve their socio-economic status. Bangladesh’s total workforce is 87 million and a majority is illiterate (only 4% of workers have secondary/higher education) where’re the overall quality of Bangladesh’s human capital is not in satisfactory level but disappointing (The World Bank, 2016). Construction industries are one of the most dangerous field work in terms of health and safety issues are considered as a major problem for most developing countries like- India, Bangladesh, and so on. The workers from various parts of the country and was dissimilar background exposed to occupational sicknesses and health risks, psychosocial stresses, leading to serious diseases and injuries (Singh et al., 2017) [13] . Construction is a very tough, especially in a manual industry, injury and illness are very common (Arndt et al., 2005) [1] . In Bangladesh, the workplace and health of construction workers are not free from vulnerability. For an example, 179 workers lost their valuable lives at the construction sector in 2017 (OSHE Newsletter, 2017) [9] . In the era of globalization, construction sector has established itself as a fast-growing industry, but very little research has been conducted on the health conscious, occupational health hazards or on psychological problems among these workers especially in Asian countries. Therefore, it is a burning issue to develop more projects focusing the health and safety consciousness among these workers (Jayakrishnan et al., 2013; Singh et al., 2017) [6, 13] . In a study, it has been found that the female construction workers suffered from various health problems, including skin problem, urinary tract infection, backache, and constipation (Sultana et al., 2014) [14] .