Mediating Effects of Fitness-For-Work on Fatigue for Mining (Heavy Equipment) Technicians in Indonesia

Abstract

Fatigue has been considered as a major contributing factor to workplace accidents. While most previous studies on fatigue have been conducted in a laboratory setting, the current study was performed in the mining region of Kalimantan, Indonesia. This study assessed the fitness-for-work and fatigue experienced by 21 maintenance technicians at two mining workshops. This study focused on three independent variables: work shift (day shift and night shift), work locations (non-remote area and remote area), and individual fitness. Heart rate and the Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) data (in terms of total error and mean reaction time) were collected at the beginning, middle, and end of work. Covariance analysis was applied to determine the effect of the independent variables on fitness-for-work and fatigue. The results show that work shift and individual fitness significantly influence fitness-for-work (p 0.05). However, none of the independent variables significantly affect fatigue, even though fitness-for-work and fatigue are strongly correlated (r = 0.69, p 0.05). These results proved the role of fitness-for-work as an intermediate factor in fatigue. We suggest that there should be a shift in strategy for reducing the risk of accident-related fatigue, from fatigue monitoring directly to fitness-for-work screening. Eventually, the practical implementations of the findings are discussed comprehensively.