In line with one of the faculty’s visions to make the Faculty of Public Health (FPH) at the Universitas Indonesia (UI) an internationally reputable center for the development of public health knowledge, technology, and education, actively contributing to the development of the public health profession and health development efforts in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, FPH UI is actively maintaining continuous good relations and fostering cooperation with partner universities abroad. This is one of FPH UI’s efforts to enhance its international reputation.
For example, on July 3-4, 2024, FPH UI participated in The 2nd International Conference on Public Health, Environment, and Education for Sustainable Development Goals and Lifelong Learning 2024, held at Universiti Brunei Darussalam. In this event, not only faculty members but also FPH UI students took part.
With the theme “Futuring Together: Integrating Lifelong Learning with Sustainable Practices for Healthier Communities and Environments,” the conference emphasized the core of integrating lifelong learning with sustainable practices, focusing on the importance of health and the environment. This aligns with the broader goals of the conference, which are to promote a cross-disciplinary approach to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and encourage collaborative strategies and forward-thinking among professionals, educators, and policymakers to create healthier communities and more sustainable environments.
Ria Novasari Mei Astuti, a Master’s student in Occupational Health and Safety (K3) at FPH UI, participated as an oral presenter at this conference. Ria presented her research on the topic “Mitigating Work Fatigue in Coal Mining Industries in Indonesia.” Her research focused on the high number of accidents in mining traffic both globally and in Indonesia, with fatigue being one of the primary causes of accidents.
Her research was conducted with heavy equipment operators at an open-pit coal mining company in East Kalimantan. The quantitative study she conducted aimed to uncover the relationship between non-work-related factors and fatigue. “Sleep quality was identified as the main independent factor, and eighteen other variables were examined to determine whether they influenced fatigue and confounded the relationship between sleep quality and fatigue,” Ria explained.
Ria explored factors that might affect sleep quality, which had not been previously studied. She found that the sleep quality of mine workers had a significant impact on fatigue. The significance of the relationship between sleep quality and fatigue was reinforced by a lack of family support in creating a comfortable sleeping environment, long commuting times, which made it difficult for workers to get sufficient night and day sleep, less than three years of work experience, and overcommitment, where there was a phenomenon of high expectations for heavy equipment operators with high education levels, ranging from D1 to Master’s degrees. Financial anxiety was a variable that was not significantly related but was considered a cause of sleep latency due to concerns about the future, online and conventional loans that had to be taken out.
“Through this research, we hope that future studies will explore more about family support and financial anxiety experienced by heavy equipment operators and miners, as well as explore factors that hinder work fatigue,” Ria said.
Not only students, but also the Head of the Master’s Program in K3, Dr. Dadan Erwandi, S.Psi., M.Si., participated in this event. “In addition to promoting FPH UI on an international scale, FPH UI’s participation in The 2nd International Conference on Public Health, Environment, and Education for Sustainable Development Goals and Lifelong Learning 2024 aims to strengthen connections, networks, alliances, and cooperation opportunities to deepen knowledge and relationships with all involved parties. Moreover, knowledge exchange, best practices, experiences in public health science, innovation, research, and strategic and practical ideas for implementation are also goals of our participation,” said Dr. Dadan.
The conference was attended by participants not only from Brunei Darussalam and Indonesia, but also from Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, the Philippines, China, and Sri Lanka. (wrk)