Abstract
:Background:Working at height has always been considered as one of the most dangerous industrial activities. Workers' fitness including their physical and psychological ability plays a key role in prevention of occupational accidents. This research was conducted to investigate the physical and mental fitness of telecommunication tower climbers as well as their job stress.Methods:This cross-sectional study was conducted among employees of a contracting company which worked in the field of telecommunication tower installation in Iran during 2016. Sixty out of 93 workers voluntarily participated in this study. Data collection tools were the Persian version of the Work Ability Index (WAI), the Persian version of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Stress Indicator Tool and an author-developed measure to assess socio-demographic characteristics. Data was analyzed through statistical tests such as independent t-test, univariate analyses of variance (ANOVAs), Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and multivariate linear regression; using SPSS 19 software. Results:Workers' mean ± SD WAI score was 29.17± 10.33 and for work-related stress was 3.08 ± 1.80. There was a significant relation between WAI and educational level, job tenure, hours of sleep per day, regular exercise, and second job. The repression modeling explained 67.4% of the total variance (adjusted R2) of the WAI score. Among the dimensions of work related stress, control (β = 0.21) and changes (β = -0. 40) were significant predictors of the WAI score.Conclusions:To improve the worker’s work ability, intervention programs should focus on promoting level of job control, sleep quality and exercise. Additionally, implementing a comprehensive macroergonomics and participatory program for increase involvement the workers in organization changes should be considered.
Highlights
Working at height has always been considered as one of the most dangerous industrial activities
This study aims to investigate the relation between Work Ability Index (WAI) and some socio-demographic variables and workrelated stress, in order to evaluate the physical and mental fitness of Iranian telecom tower climbers
Work ability index (WAI) This index has 7 dimensions including: current work ability compared with the workers best lifetime working period, work ability according to the physical and mental nature of the job, number of current diagnosed diseases by a physician, personal thoughts about work incapability due to disease, sick leave during the past 12 months, personal prediction of work ability during the two years and estimates about mental problems and harms related to disease
Summary
Working at height has always been considered as one of the most dangerous industrial activities. According to the database of the Iranian Ministry of Labor, and Social Welfare, 3933 out of 10583 workrelated accidents registered in 2012 were related to falls. These accidents led to the loss of 3257844 working days.[1] it would be important to find the cause of these accidents and clarify effective factors on unsafe behaviors or acts, in order to conduct effective safety control measures.[2] Despite the fact that there are not any official statistics of occupational accidents among Iranian telecommunication tower climbers, the Iranian Ministry of Energy reported that 130 tower climbers died and 900 were injured in the recent years.[3]. Implementing a comprehensive macroergonomics and participatory program for increase involvement the workers in organization changes should be considered
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