Occupational Safety And Health Interventions Research Articles

Effectiveness of Occupational Safety and Health interventions: a long way to go.

Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) has become an area of increasing concern for organizations and institutions. As it evolves, it has gradually posed ongoing challenges, becoming more complex, for organizations. Consequently, more comprehensive studies are required to advance academic and institutional research. From this perspective, this study aims to gather research contributions on the effectiveness of existing interventions for OSH improvement and identify areas for further exploration. According to the nature of scientific literature, the overall process of a literature review was investigated following an integrative approach, which involved searching for, selecting, and analyzing various literature in a creative and integrated manner, without a predefined structure. The analysis suggests that there is room for improvement in understanding the effectiveness of OSH interventions and more concrete guidance is still desirable. Based on the literature, some research areas for future developments in OSH interventions are identified. One potential area to explore further is fostering human-centered technological development and a more conscious network of stakeholders, with higher coordination, shared knowledge, and open communication. Focusing on the proposed directions will support scholars and practitioners in pursuing continuous OSH improvement through more effective and well-grounded workplace interventions and encourage organizations to be proactive in daily OSH management.

Enabling Effective Implementation of Occupational Safety and Health Interventions

BackgroundThe design, implementation, and evaluation are three important stages of occupational safety and health (OSH) interventions. Historically, there has been a tendency to prioritize implementation, often neglecting detailed design and rigorous outcome evaluation. Currently, much has changed, and contemporary approaches recognize the interdependence of these stages, considering them integral to the success of any intervention. This work presents a comprehensive procedure for implementing interventions, not only to ensure short-term effectiveness but also their long-term sustainability through continuous monitoring. The focus is on a national OSH project introducing a near-miss management system (NMS) in Italy. MethodsInitial meetings were convened among project partners, complemented by interviews with diverse stakeholders, to plan implementation steps and test the NMS. Tailored questionnaires were designed for diverse stakeholder groups – initial promoters, company managers and employers, and employees – facilitating targeted implementation, and three case studies were started in Italian regions to assess the structured implementation, involving intervention promoters and collaborating companies. ResultsThe primary outcome is the development of practical tools, specifically three questionnaires, which are considered valuable for establishing an effective human-centered implementation strategy, meticulously designed to facilitate ongoing monitoring of processes and continual enhancement of instruments intended for NMS integration within companies. ConclusionsThis work lays the foundation for successful NMS implementation in Italy and, although the outlined procedure had specific objectives, it also provides valuable insights applicable in enhancing the effectiveness and sustainability of interventions across diverse contexts. It underscores the importance of comprehensive planning, stakeholder engagement, and continuous evaluation in achieving lasting OSH interventions.

Sustainable occupational safety and health interventions: A study on the factors for an effective design

Effective interventions are a priority in continuously changing occupational environments, particularly in companies struggling to manage health and safety in the workplace. Practitioners may consider practical solutions for Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) improvement as a panacea for all major problems. However, they may overlook a range of other factors that affect the success of such solutions. The way in which a solution is developed, designed, implemented, and evaluated determines its impact. Participatory interventions are one way of ensuring better results. Consequently, this study proposes a way of establishing sustainable, effective, and efficient interventions by defining the required processes and actively involving responsible actors (i.e., who, when, and how).A national OSH intervention for introducing a near-miss management system, funded by the Italian National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (INAIL), is used as a reference because its development process includes an accurate design stage. Based on this intervention, a multistep design process is built to answer how (how the intervention will persist by defining the context, processes, and scenarios), who (who will be the responsible actors actively participating), and when (when actors will be involved) questions.The design process established for the intervention, although within a specific context, provides clues to discriminant factors that would enable effectiveness in general interventions, and the proposed system for near-miss management generates insights that may be generalizable to other OSH interventions developed in different environments.

Digital training for psychosocial risk assessment as an approach to foster primary prevention for SMEs: An evaluation study.

Rapidly changing stressful working conditions put new challenges on mental health in future work, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which need to be addressed on an organisational level. To promote, secure and sustain a healthy workforce in the long run, primary prevention of psychosocial risks is needed. Still, 70% of EU companies and over 85% of German SMEs lack the legally required implementation of psychosocial risk assessment (PRA) in their occupational safety and health (OSH) management. The aim of the study was to evaluate the digital training PsyHealth worXs! as a suitable approach to teach OSH stakeholders how to conduct PRA. We conducted a longitudinal evaluation study with two measurement times in the first and last week of the digital training based on N = 312 questionnaires. After the training, participants' knowledge of the PRA process was significantly higher, and they felt significantly more competent to derive OSH interventions. Overall, the process of PRA and the involvement of stakeholders were perceived as significantly easier. Results suggest that the digital training provides an easily accessible opportunity for SMEs to successfully enable their OSH management to implement PRA strategies. Future research will have to evaluate the overall long-term implementation increase of PRA in German SME companies.

A decision support system for designing win–win interventions impacting occupational safety and operational performance in ageing workforce contexts

Many companies are facing issues related to the increasing average age of their workforce, which impacts both operational and occupational safety and health (OSH) performance. In recent years, the ageing workforce (AW) has been investigated from various perspectives by researchers, showing how companies can use different approaches to address this phenomenon, either in their OSH interventions or operational strategies. However, no studies have investigated the interrelations between these approaches. In this study, we first conducted an extensive literature review that enabled the identification of (i) the aspects of operational and OSH performance affected by the AW, (ii) the suitable types of interventions in an AW context, and (iii) the interrelations between the three. Based on this, we then present a conceptual decision support system (DSS) to assist decision makers in analysing operational and OSH performance at their workplace and defining the proper interventions for an AW context. Specifically, by considering the interrelations between the interventions and both operational and OSH performance, the conceptual DSS facilitates a win–win approach, where both operational and OSH performances are improved simultaneously by choosing the proper intervention(s). An illustrative application case is then developed to show the application of the DSS before drawing conclusions about its major strengths and limitations, and further research avenues.

Utilization of Machine Learning in Supporting Occupational Safety and Health Decisions in Hospital Workplace

The prediction of possible future incidents or accidents and the efficiency assessment of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) interventions are essential for the effective protection of healthcare workers, as the occupational risks in their workplace are multiple and diverse. Machine learning algorithms have been utilized for classifying post-incident and post-accident data into the following 5 classes of events: Needlestick/Cut, Falling, Incident, Accident, and Safety. 476 event reports from Metaxa Cancer Hospital (Greece), during 2014-2019, were used to train the machine learning models. The developed models showed high predictive performance, with area under the curve range 0.950-0.990 and average accuracy of 93% on the 10-fold cross set, compared to the safety engineer’s study reports. The proposed DSS model can contribute to the prediction of incidents or accidents and efficiency evaluation of OSH interventions.

An application of a modified theory of planned behavior model to investigate adolescents’ job safety knowledge, norms, attitude and intention to enact workplace safety and health skills

Introduction: For many reasons, including a lack of adequate safety training and education, U.S. adolescents experience a higher rate of job-related injury compared to adult workers. Widely used social-psychological theories in public health research and practice, such as the theory of planned behavior, may provide guidance for developing and evaluating school-based interventions to prepare adolescents for workplace hazards and risks. Method: Using a structural equation modeling approach, the current study explores whether a modified theory of planned behavior model provides insight on 1,748 eighth graders’ occupational safety and health (OSH) attitude, subjective norm, self-efficacy and behavioral intention, before and after receiving instruction on a free, national young worker safety and health curriculum. Reliability estimates for the measures were produced and direct and indirect associations between knowledge and other model constructs assessed. Results: Overall, the findings align with the theory of planned behavior. The structural equation model adequately fit the data; most path coefficients are statistically significant and knowledge has indirect effects on behavioral intention. Confirmatory factor analyses suggest that the knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy, and behavioral intention measures each reflect a unique dimension (reliability estimates ≥0.86), while the subjective norm measure did not perform adequately. Conclusion: The findings presented provide support for using behavioral theory (specifically a modified theory of planned behavior) to investigate adolescents’ knowledge, perceptions, and behavioral intention to engage in safe and healthful activities at work, an understanding of which may contribute to reducing the downstream burden of injury on this vulnerable population—the future workforce. Practical application: Health behavior theories, commonly used in the social and behavioral sciences, have utility and provide guidance for developing and evaluating OSH interventions, including those aimed at preventing injuries and promoting the health and safety of adolescent workers in the U.S., who are injured at higher rates than are adults.

Workplace health promotion and safety in state and territorial health departments in the United States: a national mixed-methods study of activity, capacity, and growth opportunities

BackgroundState and Territorial Health Departments (SHDs) have a unique role in protecting and promoting workers’ health. This mixed-methods study presents the first systematic investigation of SHDs’ activities and capacity in both Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) and Workplace Health Promotion (WHP) in the United States (US).MethodsNational survey of OSH and WHP practitioners from each of 56 SHDs, followed by in-depth interviews with a subset of survey respondents. We calculated descriptive statistics for survey variables and conducted conventional content analysis of interviews.ResultsSeventy percent (n = 39) of OSH and 71% (n = 40) of WHP contacts responded to the survey. Twenty-seven (n = 14 OSH, n = 13 WHP) participated in follow-up interviews. Despite limited funding, staffing, or organizational support, SHDs reported a wide array of activities. We assessed OSH and WHP surveillance activities, support that SHDs provided to employers to implement OSH and WHP interventions (implementation support), OSH and WHP services provided directly to workers, OSH follow-back investigations, and OSH standard and policy development. Each of the categories we asked about (excluding OSH standard and policy development) were performed by more than half of responding SHDs. Surveillance was the area of greatest OSH activity, while implementation support was the area of greatest WHP activity. Respondents characterized their overall capacity as low. Thirty percent (n = 9) of WHP and 19% (n = 6) of OSH respondents reported no funds at all for OSH/WHP work, and both groups reported a median 1.0 FTEs working on OSH/WHP at the SHD. Organizational support for OSH and WHP was characterized as “low” to “moderate”.To increase SHDs’ capacity for OSH and WHP, interview respondents recommended that OSH and WHP approaches be better integrated into other public health initiatives (e.g., infectious disease prevention), and that federal funding for OSH and WHP increase. They also discussed specific recommendations for improving the accessibility and utility of existing funding mechanisms, and the educational resources they desired from the CDC.ConclusionsResults revealed current activities and specific strategies for increasing capacity of SHDs to promote the safety and health of workers and workplaces – an important public health setting for reducing acute injury and chronic disease.

Design of OSH interventions: A model to improve their actual implementation

BackgroundA multitude of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) interventions have proven to be effective under controlled conditions, but their implementation in practice is often difficult and interventions may therefore not work as expected, especially when referring to Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). MethodsIn order to solve this challenge, this paper proposes a model for the systematic design of OSH interventions that takes into account the underlying mechanisms and the contextual factors that can enable or disable the behavioural changes needed for an effective implementation of OSH interventions. The performance of the model has been evaluated through fifty interviews. ResultsThe interviewees highlighted how the model fosters innovative and more effective solutions, a more effective focus on the aspects that should be considered, a more organic and systematic way of structuring the data, and a holistic and comprehensive view of the factors. The model also highlights specific aspects of contextual factors and mechanisms and it organizes the data in a more systematic and structured fashion. ConclusionThe evaluation of the model suggests the value of following a structured framework towards implementation of OSH interventions based on the analysis of mechanisms and contextual factors.

Current Status and the Future of Occupational Safety and Health Legislation in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

This article addresses three key issues. First, the commonalities, differences, strengths, and limitations of existing occupational safety and health (OSH) legislation of low- and middle-income countries were determined. Second, required revisions were identified and discussed to strengthen the laws in accordance with the best international practice. Finally, proposals for additional OSH laws and interventions were suggested. A literature search of OSH laws of 10 selected low- and middle-income countries was carried out. The laws were subjected to uniform review criteria. Although the agricultural sector employs more than 70% of the population, most of the reviewed countries lack OSH legislation on the sector. Existing OSH laws are gender insensitive, fragmented among various government departments, insufficient, outdated, and nondeterrent to perpetrators and lack incentives for compliance. Conclusively, the legal frameworks require reformation and harmonization for the collective benefit to employees, employers, and regulatory authorities. New OSH legislation for the agricultural sector is required.

Is the longbow better than the crossbow? Emerging issues from mobilising a longitudinal study on a megaproject

Longitudinal studies of occupational safety and health (OSH) outcomes in construction projects are rarely conducted, due to the financial, practical and ethical difficulties of studying people, projects, and organisations over extended periods of time. Traditionally, OSH research in the construction industry is cross-sectional – where a ‘snapshot’ is taken, often with a retrospective view. The focus of this paper is the mobilisation of a longitudinal research study investigating OSH policy in an eight-year infrastructure megaproject in the UK. The research examines implementation of the project’s “transformational” OSH strategy, in order to develop new understandings of the effectiveness of OSH interventions. The research design uses a “strategy as practice” lens and traces the various strands of OSH policy, from development to their adoption as practice. The research context is complex, due to the complicated contractual arrangements. The research design incorporates a rarely used “tracer” methodology. During the mobilisation phase of the research project, several challenges were identified, including interpretation and implementation of this tracer methodology, coping with a large team of researchers, obtaining ethics approval and establishing the governance structure, deployment of the team to the site, ensuring consistency in the data collection, managing data sets, and the reliability of the coding. The methodology adopted is time-consuming, and the very large data sets that are generated need to be managed. Complex research project management structures and processes are required, which would not be needed for traditional cross-sectional studies. Sufficient time needs to be allowed at the start of such research projects, in order to put the necessary systems in place. The paper will be of interest to OSH researchers and those contemplating longitudinal studies, particularly those employing a tracer approach.

Economic Evaluation of Occupational Safety and Health Interventions From the Employer Perspective: A Systematic Review.

Objectives:The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of occupational safety and health interventions from the employer perspective.Methods:A comprehensive literature search (2005 to 2016) in five electronic databases was conducted. Pre-2005 studies were identified from the reference lists of previous studies and systematic reviews, which have similar objective to those of this search.Results:A total of 19 randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies were included, targeting diverse health problems in a number of settings. Few studies included organizational-level interventions. When viewed in relation to the methodological quality and the sufficiency of economic evidence, five of 11 cost-effective occupational safety and health (OSH) interventions appear to be promising.Conclusion:The present systematic review highlights the need for high-quality economic evidence to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of OSH interventions, especially at organizational-level, in all areas of worker health.

Drivers for OSH interventions in small and medium-sized enterprises

The debate concerning occupational safety and health (OSH) interventions has recently focused on the need of improving the evaluation of interventions, and in particular on the need for providing information about why the intervention worked or not, under what circumstances and in which context. Key concepts in the analysis of the context are the drivers, i.e., those factors enabling, fostering or facilitating OSH interventions. However, the concept of driver for an OSH intervention is both confused and contested. Although the term is widely used, there is little consensus on how drivers should be understood, how important they are in different contexts and how they can facilitate interventions. This exploratory study based on interviews with the owner-managers and the safety officers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) gives an overview of the most characteristic drivers for OSH interventions. The results will be used to make an initial evaluation of SMEs' needs, and will help orient interventions and future research.

0008 A new model for outreach to small industrial firms: safety audit results from the National Machine Guarding Program0008 A new model for outreach to small industrial firms: safety audit results from the National Machine Guarding Program

ObjectivesSmall industrial firms frequently lack occupational safety and health (OSH) expertise. In addition, development of effective, widely applicable OSH interventions for small businesses has proven to be a persistent challenge....

Economic evaluations of occupational health interventions from a corporate perspective – a systematic review of methodological quality

Using a standardized quality criteria list, we appraised the methodological quality of economic evaluations of occupational safety and health (OSH) interventions conducted from a corporate perspective. The primary literature search was conducted in Medline and Embase. Supplemental searches were conducted in the Cochrane NHS Economic Evaluation Database, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) database, the Ryerson International Labour, Occupational Safety and Health Index, scans of reference lists, and researchers' own literature database. Independently, two researchers selected articles based on title, keywords, and abstract, and if needed, fulltext. Disagreements were resolved by a consensus procedure. Articles were selected based on seven criteria addressing study population, type of intervention, comparative intervention, outcome, costs, language, and perspective. Two reviewers independently judged methodological quality using the Consensus on Health Economic Criteria (CHEC-list), a 19-item standardized quality criteria list. Disagreements in judgment were also resolved by consensus. Data were analyzed descriptively. A total of 34 studies were included. Of these, only 44% of the studies met more than 50% of the quality criteria. Of the 19 quality criteria, 8 were met by 50% or more of the studies. The 11 least fulfilled criteria related to (i) performance of a sensitivity analysis, (ii) selection of perspective, (iii) description of study population, (iv) discussion of generalizability, (v) description of competing alternatives, (vi) presentation of the research question, (vii) measurement of outcomes, (viii) measurement of costs, (ix) valuation of costs, (x) declaration of researchers' independence, and (xi) discussion of ethical and distributional issues. Apart from a few exceptions, the overall methodological quality of the economic evaluations of OSH interventions from a corporate perspective was poor. As such, there is a risk of biased results. The quality of future evaluations needs to be improved to increase the validity of their conclusions and recommendations.

Developing guidelines for good practice in the economic evaluation of occupational safety and health interventions

One of the objectives of a recently held workshop in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, was to advance methods for the economic evaluation of occupational safety and health (OSH) interventions at the corporate and societal level. Drawing from that workshop, we discuss issues to consider when developing guidelines for good practice (ie, a reference case). The Economics of Occupational Safety and Health (ECOSH) workshop was held in conjunction with the Repository of Occupational Well-being Economic Research (ROWER) initiative in the fall of 2009 and brought together researchers, employers, unions, policymakers, and other stakeholders. Through presentations, break-out sessions, and group discussions, efforts were made to develop a consensus on key elements for good practice. This manuscript integrates these efforts along with earlier contributions in this area. We propose some framework principles and a set of recommendations to serve as the foundations for developing a reference case. We argue that a reference case can be invaluable for the OSH field because it encourages sound principles to be consistently applied in studies. Furthermore, it can ensure that studies are more readily comparable regardless of the intervention type, jurisdiction, or sector. Developing guidelines for good practice in the economic evaluation of OSH interventions that meet the needs of all stakeholders requires discussion as well as time. The ECOSH/ROWER initiative has served as a good starting point for this objective.

An overview to CERSSO's self evaluation of the cost-benefit on the investment in occupational safety and health in the textile factories: “A step by step methodology”

Introduction: The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and CERSSO collaborated to develop a new Tool Kit (TK), which became available in May 2002. PAHO already had a TK in place, and CERSSO requested that one be developed for their needs. CERSSO wanted to enable managers and line workers in garment factories to self-diagnose plant and workstation hazards and to estimate the costs and benefits of investing in occupational safety and health (OSH) as a way to improve productivity and competitiveness. Methods: For consistency, the collaborating organizations agreed to construct the TK according to PAHO's methodology. The instrument was developed to be comprehensive enough that any user can collect the data easily. It integrates epidemiologic, risk assessment, clinic, engineering, and accountability issues, organized to include step-by-step training in: (a) performing risk assessments in the workplaces (risk factors); (b) making cause–effect relationships; (c) improving decision making on OSH interventions; (d) doing calculations of direct and indirect costs and savings; and (e) doing calculation of the overall cost-benefit of OSH interventions. Results and Conclusions: Since July 2002, about 2,400 employees and officials from 736 garment factories, Ministries of Labor, Health, Social Security Institutes, and Technical Training Institutions of Central America and the Dominican Republic have used this instrument. Systematically, they have calculated a positive relationship of the investment (3 to 33 times). Employers are now aware of the financial rewards of investing in OSH. The TK is available in Spanish, Korean, and English. In July 2003, a software program in Spanish and English was developed (180 persons have been trained in the region), which requires less time to execute with better reliability.