Objective  To investigate the health status and its influencing factors of employees at public places in Suzhou, China, and to provide a basis for promoting the health of employees.

Methods  In 2020, a total of 233 employees in 30 public places, including hotels, shopping malls (supermarkets), barber shops and waiting rooms, in Suzhou were sampled to conduct a questionnaire survey. The basic information of the employees, the environmental conditions of workplace, personal behavior, health awareness, and other data were collected. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the influencing factors for health.

Results  A total of 193 people (82.83%) had no unhealth symptoms, and 40 people (17.17%) had unhealth symptoms in recent month. The awareness rates of disease transmission risk caused by polluted public articles and the knowledge of COVID-19 were 81.55% and 19.31%, respectively. The chi-square analysis showed that noise, humid environment, flies, mice or cockroaches, poor ventilation, whether to stop smoking at public places, accommodation, and the awareness of diseases transmission risk caused by polluted public articles had statistically significant effects on the health status of employees (χ²=3.99-14.04, P < 0.05). The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that flies, mice or cockroaches (odds ratioOR=3.092, 95% confidence intervalCI: 1.011-9.459) and poor ventilation (OR=3.669, 95% CI: 1.339-10.057) were harmful factors for the health of practitioners, and the awareness rate of disease transmission risk caused by polluted public articles (OR=0.246, 95% CI: 0.098-0.612) was a protective factor for the health of employees.

Conclusion  Improving sanitation in public places and strengthening health knowledge training are important factors to improve the health level of employees.