Objective To investigate the dust protection status of workers engaged in indoor decoration in Yantai city and analyze its main influence factors, so as to provide scientific basis for strengthening occupational protection.

Methods A faceto-face questionnaire survey was conducted among 200 workers engaged in decoration in six districts of Yantai City to investigate their knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of dust protection, as well as their health management. The influence factors of their knowledge of dust protection and wearing of dust masks were analyzed.

Results Among 200 workers, 18.23% of them had "good" knowledge in dust protection, and 39.58% of the workers were able to properly wear dust masks when they exposed to dust. The workers employed by enterprises, the self-employed workers and the temporary recruited workers had varied rates not only of participating in social work-related injury insurance but also of participating in periodic physical examination(P < 0.05), generally enterprise-employed workers higher than self-employed workers. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that compared with self-employed workers, workers employed by enterprises and temporary recruited by contractors were more likely to master dust protection knowledge(OR=24.767, 19.244, P < 0.01). Compared with those aged ≤ 30 years old, workers aged between 41 and 50 years old were less likely to wear dust masks correctly (OR=0.404, P < 0.05).Respectively compared with workers who did not need to wear dust masks and did not think dust protection measures were important, workers who needed to wear dust masks and thought dust protection measures were important were more likely to wear dust masks correctly (OR=2.884, 3.139, P < 0.05).

Conclusion The knowledge level and behavior of dust protection of workers engaged in indoor decoration in Yantai City need to be improved. To carry out effective workplace health promotion activities and focus on the health education of workers with large mobility are the main measures to strengthen dust protection of these workers in the future.