TYPE Original Research PUBLISHED 22 December 2022 DOI 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1034957 OPEN ACCESS EDITED BY Stefania Sponselli, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy REVIEWED BY Peter Lundqvist, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden Nicola Luigi Bragazzi, York University, Canada Simo Salminen, University of Helsinki, Finland Pimpan Silpasuwan, Mahidol University, Thailand *CORRESPONDENCE Besufekad Mekonnen besusweet12@gmail.com SPECIALTY SECTION This article was submitted to Occupational Health and Safety, a section of the journal Frontiers in Public Health RECEIVED 02 September 2022 ACCEPTED 02 December 2022 PUBLISHED 22 December 2022 CITATION Mekonnen B, Solomon N, Wondimu W, Tesfaye M and Negash S (2022) Work-related disease symptoms and occupational injuries among coffee processing industry workers in Bench-Sheko and Kaffa Zones Southwest, Ethiopia: A mixed-method study. Front. Public Health 10:1034957. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1034957 COPYRIGHT © 2022 Mekonnen, Solomon, Wondimu, Tesfaye and Negash. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Work-related disease symptoms and occupational injuries among coffee processing industry workers in Bench-Sheko and Kaffa Zones Southwest, Ethiopia: A mixed-method study Besufekad Mekonnen 1 *, Nahom Solomon 2 , Wondimagegn Wondimu 2 , Melkamsew Tesfaye 2 and Samuel Negash 2 1 Department of Environmental Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Mizan-Tepi University, Mizan-Aman, Ethiopia, 2 Department of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Mizan-Tepi University, Mizan-Aman, Ethiopia Background: Occupational injuries have become one of the most critical rooting causes paying to infirmities and life-threatening conditions in developed and developing countries. Workers in the coffee industry face some occupational health and safety issues. However, there is limited evidence on this important public health issue. Hence, this research was conducted to assess work-related disease symptoms and occupational injuries among coffee processing workers in Southwest, Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional study supplemented with a qualitative method was done. A total of 721 workers were involved in the study for quantitative information. In addition, we performed a total of 22 in-depth and five key informant interviews for generating qualitative evidence. Quantitative data was collected by an interview-based questionnaire which is adapted from similar studies. We conducted descriptive, binary logistic, and multivariable regression analysis as necessary, to ascertain the factors affecting occupational injuries. We collected qualitative data guided by an interview guide, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using ATLAS ti version-8 by applying a content analysis approach. Finally, quotes from participants that had exemplary ideas were triangulated along with quantitative findings. Result: The overall prevalence rate of work-related symptoms and occupational injuries among coffee processing workers were 21.7 and 13.4% respectively. Age group 30–39 and 40–49 (Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.95, 95% CI 1.37, 2.79, (AOR 3.28, 95% CI 1.89, 5.69, respectively, income level (AOR 0.24, 95% CI 0.16, 0.36, p = 0.000), experience (AOR 1.64, 95% CI 1.04, 2.60, p = 0.034), and smoking cigarette (AOR 5.59, 95% CI 2.78, 11.26, p = 0.000) were significantly associated with the work-related symptom. In addition, training related to the job (AOR 11.88, 95% CI1.34, 105.57, p = 0.026) was significantly associated with occupational injuries among coffee processing industry workers. Frontiers in Public Health 01 frontiersin.org