Individual safety and health outcomes in the construction industry

Abstract

Between 2004 and 2006, 911 self-administered questionnaires were collected from 84 nonresidential Ontario construction sites. Each questionnaire contained 105 questions and took approximately 15 min to complete. This paper presents one study from that research project that seeks to understand the relationship among worker demographics, worker safety attitudes, and worker health and safety outcomes (e.g., worker well-being and accidents). The participants had an average age of 38.3 years with 15.1 years experience in the industry. Short job tenure, age, experience, and job position were highly related to safety outcomes. Apprentices experienced more accidents, whereas supervisors reported more work-related psychological symptoms. Among the situational factors, higher work pressure, high interpersonal conflict, and low-quality leadership were most strongly associated with work-related health outcomes and accidents. Regression models were developed with a maximum adjusted coefficient of determination of 0.28. A graphical means of modeling the data was demonstrated in the form of a Bayesian belief network.