Productivity enablers and inhibiting health and wellbeing practices of South Australian construction site-based workers: a qualitative study

Abstract

This study is aimed at analyzing the perceptions of South Australian construction site-based blue-collared workers on the enablers and inhibiting health and wellbeing practices, establish their impact on the physical abilities, safety performance and overall productivity of older workers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 construction practitioners. Content analysis and associated techniques of word frequency analysis and coding were used for data analysis. The findings showed some consensus on the factors affecting the health and wellbeing practices with obesity, smoking and higher alcohol consumption among the risk factors and prevalent lifestyles among the workers. The ‘weather’ was identified among the highly ranked physical factors affecting productivity. The study also established the higher prevalence of health and, mental issues, injuries and recreational usage of drugs among the workers. Solutions are proposed for overcoming the identified inhibiting practices. This study was the first research to investigate the perceptions of South Australian construction site-based workers on the enablers and inhibiting health and wellbeing practices and associated consequences among older workers within the South Australian construction sector. The findings of this study offer insights in terms of creating awareness of the degrading health and well-being of construction workers, in particular, the ageing workforce.