Health Administration for Industries of Middle, Small or Petty Scale

Recently, much interest has arisen in the health administration for middle, small or petty scale industries in our country, though there is the difficulty of approach to thier problems because of economic and social conditions. Great significance in the study on the enterprises of these scale is in the following points; (1) the economical role played in our industrial circle, (2) overwhelming majority both in number of enterpises (99.8%), and in the population of working people there (66.0%), (3) the necessity of combination of the approaches to the problems in community and industrial health for solving the probloms in the enterprises in these scales, showing quite a clear contrast against lagre enterprises in which the problems could be solved mainly in the enterprises themselves. At first, the author has discussed the significance of the existence of the middle, small or petty scale industries by analyzing the present-day economical tendency of our country. Then he has chosen an experimental factory of rubber goods manufacture having around 500 workers. He has managed to set up a dispensary and studied its relationship with the doctors in the environmental community. He has analyzed the clients of various kinds of diseaeses, health counselling and the occupational accidents there, and discussed the situations which have been quite different from those in large enterprises. Further, he has evaluated the administration done and the changes of the health status of the workers during the research period, using Okayama Medical Index-Health Questionnaire (O.M.I.). A conclusion was made that the trial practice with scientific analysis described above may be a creative step for the progress to approach the difficult theme in the field of our industrial health.