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Construction workers face a high risk of various occupational accidents, many of which can result in fatalities. This study aims to develop a prediction model for nine prevalent types of construction accidents, utilizing construction tasks, activities, and tools/materials as input features, through the application of machine learning-based multi-class classification algorithms. 152,867 construction accident summary reports, composed of both structured (construction task, construction activity, accident type) and unstructured data (tools/materials) were used for the study. The study employed several data processing techniques, including keyword extraction through text mining, Boruta feature selection, and SMOTE data resampling enhance model accuracy. Three performance metrics (Multi-class area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (MAUC), Multi-class Matthews Correlation Coefficient (MMCC), Geometric-mean (G-mean)) were used to compare the predictive performance of four machine learning algorithms, including Decision tree, Random forest, Naïve bayes, and XGBoost. Of the four algorithms, XGBoost showed the highest performance in predicting accident type (MAUC: 0.8603, MMCC: 0.3523, G-mean: 0.5009). Furthermore, a Shapley additive explanation (SHAP) analysis was conducted to visualize feature importance. The findings of this study make a valuable contribution to improving construction safety by presenting a prediction model for accident types derived from real-world big data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Un-signalized intersections in India witnessed the maximum number of crashes and fatalities in 2019. The nature of the crash investigation is still largely reactive, where the need for accurate and reliable crash data for effective safety diagnosis is pivotal. In India, crash records are unscientific, and critical details are missing. Therefore, a proactive approach using surrogate safety measures is more promising and prudent in analyzing traffic safety. The present study investigates and models crossing conflicts at un-signalized intersections under mixed traffic conditions. Traffic video data for 14 un-signalized intersections (eight un-signalized three-legged intersections and six un-signalized four-legged intersections) were collected under normal weather conditions. The crossing conflicts were identified and characterized as critical and noncritical conflicts based on the values of post-encroachment time (PET). Conflicts with PET values between −1 s and 1 s were identified as critical conflicts. The observation revealed the existence of both positive and negative PET values. The investigation revealed that crossing conflicts with negative PET values are riskier and more unsafe than conflicts with positive ones. Therefore, the crossing conflicts with positive and negative PETs were modeled separately. The positive and negative PET-based critical crossing conflicts are modeled as a function of traffic flow and intersection geometry-related characteristics using truncated negative binomial regression under a full Bayesian modeling framework. K-fold cross-validation with fivefold was employed to calibrate the model, and RMSE was used to find the best model. The modeling results revealed that the volume and traffic composition of the offending and conflicting stream and intersection geometry significantly influence the number of positive and negative PET-based critical crossing conflicts. The developed models can interest engineers and safety experts to analyze traffic safety and identify critical intersections in urban road networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Road safety audit (RSA) is a method used to proactively identify safety risks in road projects from planning, design, and construction stages. The effectiveness of the implementation of RSAs varies across the globe. This paper provides an understanding of road safety auditor's opinions and attitudes by using data collected from an online questionnaire filled by 408 road safety experts with varying demographic and technical backgrounds. Results demonstrated that majority of respondents agreed that RSA is an effective tool to improve road safety. Compared to high-income countries, respondents from low- and middle-income countries had less knowledge about RSA and less access to RSA guidelines. The results also indicate that many road safety auditors have a misunderstanding of the independence requirement for conducting RSA. The results of this paper can be used to inform and develop improved guidance to improve RSA generally and promote RSA as an effective road safety engineering tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although assessing the cost of workplace injuries and illnesses as part of occupational health and safety management is important in ensuring workplace safety, the issue is generally neglected among informal auto-artisans in Ghana. This paper examines the costs of occupational injuries and illnesses in terms of productivity, financial and social aspects of selected auto-artisans who service or fabricate auto parts in Suame 'Magazine' in Kumasi, Ghana. Employing a descriptive cross-sectional design, data were collected from 957 auto-artisans selected through a multistage cluster sampling method. The study found that the most frequent occupational illnesses and injuries experienced by the auto-artisans are those related to sharp objects (83.9%), inhalation of dust particles (45.8%), objects falling from height (35.6%) and burns (21.8%). These injuries and illnesses have led to loss of productivity and income which affects family members with no variations between the various categories of auto-artisans (p = 0.976). It is concluded that occupational injuries and illnesses among informal auto-artisans presents enormous financial and emotional costs to survivors and their families. It is recommended that government should lead a policy dialogue on safety in the country's informal sector, while supporting artisans to establish insurance schemes to support them in times of injuries and illnesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to develop a text clustering-based cause and effect analysis methodology for incident data to unfold the root causes behind the incidents. A cause-effect diagram is usually prepared by using experts' knowledge which may fail to capture all the causes present at a workplace. On the other hand, the description of incidents provided by the workers in the form of incident reports is typically a rich data source and can be utilized to explore the causes and sub-causes of incidents. In this study, data were collected from an integrated steel plant. The text data were analysed using singular value decomposition (SVD) and expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. Results suggest that text-document clustering can be used as a feasible method for exploring the hidden factors and trends from the description of incidents occurred at workplaces. The study also helped in finding out the anomaly in incident reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction industry is known as one of the most dangerous industries, which not only requires sound operation of executive laws and regulations, but also necessitates the safety culture of all workers at workshops. Therefore, the aim of this research is to identify the factors of safety culture and ranking occupations in jobsites based on those factors in order to proactively improve the safety culture of construction projects and subsequently promote safety conditions and worksites. In this study, safety culture criteria are weighted by a combination of Fuzzy Decision Trail and Evaluation Laboratory and Fuzzy ANP methods. Next, different job positions in high-rise projects are ranked using the Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution method. Findings demonstrated that the project manager, site superintendent and supervisor occupations had the highest and labourers had the lowest level of safety culture in the high-rise construction industry. Furthermore, factors such as safety supervision and training must be considered more seriously in order to create a positive safety culture among workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large integrated steel plants employ an effective safety management system and gather a significant amount of safety-related data. This research intends to explore and visualize the rich database to find out the key factors responsible for the occurrences of incidents. The study was carried out on the data in the form of investigation reports collected from a steel plant in India. The data were processed and analysed using some of the quality management tools like Pareto chart, control chart, Ishikawa diagram, etc. Analyses showed that causes of incidents differ depending on the activities performed in a department. For example, fire/explosion and process-related incidents are more common in the departments associated with coke-making and blast furnace. Similar kind of factors were obtained, and recommendations were provided for their mitigation. Finally, the limitations of the study were discussed, and the scope of the research works was identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the conducted research is the identification and determination of requirements of members of fire rescue brigades during operations in the conditions of high risk in order to minimize the possibilities for injury incidence during the intervention. The research is focused on examination, determination and identification of factors affecting the increasing number of occupational injuries of members of fire rescue brigades during interventions. Hypothetical framework of the research problem consists of general hypothesis and six special hypotheses. Results suggest that almost all respondents believe that their skills and abilities are applicable in the intervention phase, but less than a half believe that their skills are applicable in prevention phase. Two-thirds of respondents stated that in their organization they have support for further education and upgrading while a half of respondents stated that they need education concerning identification, assessment and management of risks that can lead to emergency situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Work compatibility’ (WC) is a multi-dimensional diagnostic tool for measuring human performance that affects safety performance of work force. There are a dearth of literature on the use of WC in industrial applications. In this study, the status of WC and its components across employees' demographics such as age, experience, designation and location of work were examined in a steel plant in India. Data on 119 employees collected using Demand-Energizer Instrument was analysed. The results revealed that supervisors perceive higher energizers, higher demands and low WC as compared to workers. Older and high experience employees perceive higher energizers, lower demands and high WC as compared to younger and less experienced employees. All employee groups perceive higher demand for physical environment and physical task content. The problematic work groups identified are less experienced employees and workers in ‘allied sections’. The outcomes of the study help the management in three ways to improve human performance at work places: (i) it provides useful information about the work factors to be considered for intervention design, (ii) it identifies the work groups to be targeted while preparing intervention strategies and (iii) it can be used as a leading indicator of human performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study used disability adjusted life years (DALY) to estimate the burden of external cause of injuries in construction workers insured in Iran in 2012. The Global Burden of Disease method (2010) was used to estimate the years of life lost due to death (YLL) and years of life lost due to disability (YLD). DALY was calculated as the sum of YLL and YLD. There were 5352 injured construction workers in Iran (11.25 individuals per 1000). Falling was the most common incidence and included 2490 individuals (46.53%). Totally, DALY was estimated 18,557 years for all age groups and both genders including 17,821 YLD (96%) and 736 YLL (4%). The DALY related to construction work is high in Iran and it has notably affected the young. Hence more preventive methods should be applied to reduce the overall burden of specific external cause of injuries especially in young and inexperienced workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupational accidents caused by electrical contact are a major concern worldwide due to their severe consequences. The study conducted is based on an analysis of the evolution of incidence rates and dependence between variables for 14,022 electrical accidents occurring in Spain between 2003 and 2012. The results show that electrical accidents as a whole are 3.6 times more likely to have severe consequences than the rest of the accidents in the country. This proportion is even nine times greater in the case of fatal accidents. They also confirm a significant relationship between the severity of this type of accidents and the economic sector in which they occur. On the other hand, there is a positive trend in the reduction of the incidence rate, especially in relation to direct contact, although unexpectedly the rate of accidents due to indirect contact is on the rise. Thus, preventing electrical occupational accidents requires efforts to guarantee adequate training adapted to the needs of workers in the various economic sectors. Furthermore, those responsible for safety should work to implement mechanisms to monitor and control compliance with efficient protective measures against electrical contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS) has been a widely used approach for managing occupational health and safety more effectively worldwide. Despite the interest of organizations in implementing OHSMS in recent decades, few studies have examined the effectiveness of these interventions. This study presents an empirical investigation of the effect of occupational health and safety assessment series (OHSAS) 18001 as a worldwide-accepted OHSMS on the occupational injury rate (OIR) in Iran. This study was carried out in six companies: three OHSAS 18001-certified, and three non-certified, including 998 occupational injuries for 15,842 person-months. A before–after analysis showed a positive safety performance change in one out of the three certified companies. For all 66 study years in the six companies, a negative binomial regression did not indicate a lower occupational injury during the certified years and a repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) did not confirm the effect of certification. The results of this study indicated that the implementation of OHSAS 18001 is not a guarantee of improved safety. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the context of underground coal mining industry, the increased economic issues regarding implementation of additional safety measure systems, along with growing public awareness to ensure high level of workers safety, have put great pressure on the managers towards finding the best solution to ensure safe as well as economically viable alternative selection. Risk-based decision support system plays an important role in finding such solutions amongst candidate alternatives with respect to multiple decision criteria. Therefore, in this paper, a unified risk-based decision-making methodology has been proposed for selecting an appropriate safety measure system in relation to an underground coal mining industry with respect to multiple risk criteria such as financial risk, operating risk, and maintenance risk. The proposed methodology uses interval-valued fuzzy set theory for modelling vagueness and subjectivity in the estimates of fuzzy risk ratings for making appropriate decision. The methodology is based on the aggregative fuzzy risk analysis and multi-criteria decision making. The selection decisions are made within the context of understanding the total integrated risk that is likely to incur while adapting the particular safety system alternative. Effectiveness of the proposed methodology has been validated through a real-time case study. The result in the context of final priority ranking is seemed fairly consistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US construction industry annually experiences a relatively high rate of fatalities and injuries; therefore, improving safety practices should be considered a top priority for this industry. Modular/prefabricated building construction is a construction strategy that involves manufacturing of the whole building or some of its components off-site. This research focuses on the safety performance of the modular/prefabricated building construction sector during both manufacturing and on-site processes. This safety evaluation can serve as the starting point for improving the safety performance of this sector. Research was conducted based on Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated accidents. The study found 125 accidents related to modular/prefabricated building construction. The details of each accident were closely examined to identify the types of injury and underlying causes. Out of 125 accidents, there were 48 fatalities (38.4%), 63 hospitalized injuries (50.4%), and 14 non-hospitalized injuries (11.2%). It was found that, the most common type of injury in modular/prefabricated construction was ‘fracture’, and the most common cause of accidents was ‘fall’. The most frequent cause of cause (underlying and root cause) was ‘unstable structure’. In this research, the accidents were also examined in terms of corresponding location, occupation, equipment as well as activities during which the accidents occurred. For improving safety records of the modular/prefabricated construction sector, this study recommends that future research be conducted on stabilizing structures during their lifting, storing, and permanent installation, securing fall protection systems during on-site assembly of components while working from heights, and developing training programmes and standards focused on modular/prefabricated construction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Accidents involving falls and falling objects (group I) are highly frequent accidents in the construction industry. While being hit by a vehicle, electric shock, collapse in the excavation and fire or explosion accidents (group II) are much less frequent, they make up a considerable proportion of severe accidents. In this study, multiple-correspondence analysis, decision tree, ensembles of decision tree and association rules methods are employed to analyse a database of construction accidents throughout Iran between 2007 and 2011. The findings indicate that in group I, there is a significant correspondence among these variables: time of accident, place of accident, body part affected, final consequence of accident and lost workdays. Moreover, the frequency of accidents in the night shift is less than others, and the frequency of injury to the head, back, spine and limbs are more. In group II, the variables time of accident and body part affected are mostly related and the frequency of accidents among married and older workers is more than single and young workers. There was a higher frequency in the evening, night shifts and weekends. The results of this study are totally in line with the previous research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study, we examined the development of industry-oriented safety degree curricula at a college level. Based on a review of literature on the practices and study of the development of safety curricula, we classified occupational safety and health curricula into the following three domains: safety engineering, health engineering, and safety and health management. We invited 44 safety professionals to complete a four-round survey that was designed using a modified Delphi technique. We used Chi-square statistics to test the panel experts’ consensus on the significance of the items in the three domains and employed descriptive statistics to rank the participants’ rating of each item. The results showed that the top three items for each of the three domains were Risk Assessment, Dangerous Machinery and Equipment, and Fire and Explosion Prevention for safety engineering; Ergonomics, Industrial Toxicology, and Health Risk Assessment for health engineering; and Industrial Safety and Health Regulations, Accident Investigation and Analysis, and Emergency Response for safety and health management. Only graduates from safety programmes who possess practical industry-oriented abilities can satisfy industry demands and provide value to the existence of college safety programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The main objective of this review was to build upon a previous study on the root causes of truck-related fatalities in surface coal mining operations in West Virginia, and to develop intervention strategies to eliminate these fatalities. This review considers a two-pronged approach to accident prevention: one that is fundamental and traditional (safety regulations, training and education, and engineering of the work environment); and one that is innovative and creative (e.g., applying technological advances to better control and eliminate the root causes of accidents). Suggestions for improving current training and education system are proposed, and recommendations are provided on improving the safety of mine working conditions, specifically safety conditions on haul roads, dump sites, and loading areas. We also discuss various currently available technologies that can help prevent haul truck-related fatal accidents. The results of this review should be used by mine personnel to help create safer working conditions and decrease truck-related fatalities in surface coal mining. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Knowing about organisational safety culture in public transportation system can provide an appropriate guide to establish effective safety measures and interventions to improve safety at work. The aim of this study was investigation of association between safety culture dimensions (leadership styles and company values, usage of crashes information and prevention programmes, management commitment and safety policy, participation and control) with involved self-reported crashes. The associations were considered through Spearman correlation, Pearson chi-square test and logistic regression. The results showed an association among self-reported crashes (occurrence or non-occurrence) and factors including leadership styles and company values; management commitment and safety policy; and control. Moreover, it was found a negative correlation and an odds ratio less than one between control and self-reported crashes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a brief summary is given about marble quarries in Carrara (Italy) and Iscehisar (Turkey), the Elmeri method is introduced, work accidents that can happen in marble quarries and their causes besides work safety behaviours in fields are explained, and the Elmeri monitoring method is applied and analysed. For this reason, marble quarries are divided into seven in terms of working conditions and active six quarries both in Carrara and Iscehisar areas, and work safety behaviours are analysed. Analysis process is based on True–False method; there are 18 items in total under six main topics; three items on each topic. The safety index for each section and the main topics are also calculated. According to the calculated safety indexes, Carrara area marble quarries (65.08%) are safer than Iscehisar area marble quarries (46.01%). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Maintenance operations cover a great number of occupations. Most small and medium-sized enterprises lack the appropriate information to conduct risk assessments of maintenance operations. The objective of this research is to provide a method based on the concepts of task and accident mechanisms for an initial risk assessment by taking into consideration the prevalence and severity of the maintenance accidents reported. Data were gathered from 11,190 reported accidents in maintenance operations in the manufacturing sector of Andalusia from 2003 to 2012. By using a semi-quantitative methodology, likelihood and severity were evaluated based on the actual distribution of accident mechanisms in each of the tasks. Accident mechanisms and tasks were identified by using those variables included in the European Statistics of Accidents at Work methodology. As main results, the estimated risk of the most frequent accident mechanisms identified for each of the analysed tasks is low and the only accident mechanisms with medium risk are accidents when lifting or pushing with physical stress on the musculoskeletal system in tasks involving carrying, and impacts against objects after slipping or stumbling for tasks involving movements. The prioritisation of public preventive actions for the accident mechanisms with a higher estimated risk is highly recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safety is a critical issue for the construction industry. Literature argues that human error contributes to more than half of occupational incidents and could be directly impacted by effective training programs. This paper reviews the current safety training status in the US construction industry. Results from the review evidence the gap between the status and industry expectation on safety. To narrow this gap, this paper demonstrates the development and utilisation of a training program that is based on virtual reality (VR) simulation. The VR-based safety training program can offer a safe working environment where users can effectively rehearse tasks with electrical hazards and ultimately promote their abilities for electrical hazard cognition and intervention. Its visualisation and simulation can also remove the training barriers caused by electricity's features of invisibility and dangerousness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although site safety has long been a key research topic in the construction field, there is a lack of literature studying safety management practices (SMPs). The current research, therefore, aims to test the effect of SMPs on project performance. An empirical study was conducted in Hong Kong and the data collected were analysed with multiple regression analysis. Results suggest that 3 of the 15 SMPs, which were ‘safety committee at project/site level’, ‘written safety policy’, and ‘safety training scheme’ explained the variance in project performance significantly. Discussion about the impact of these three SMPs on construction was provided. Assuring safe construction should be an integral part of a construction project plan. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this study was to test whether the construction workers have the tendency of engaging in risk compensation behaviours, and identify the demographic variables, which may influence the extent to which the construction workers may show risk compensation behaviours. Both quantitative (survey) and qualitative (interviews) approaches were used in this study. A questionnaire survey was conducted with all the construction workers on three building construction sites of a leading construction company in Australia. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted to validate the findings of the quantitative research. The findings indicate that workers tend to show risk compensation behaviours in the construction environment. The workers with more working experience, higher education, or having never been injured at work before have a higher tendency to show risk compensation in their activities than the others. The implication is that contractors need to assess the potential influence of workers’ risk compensation behaviours when evaluating the effect of risk control measures. It is recommended that supervisors pay more attention to the behavioural changes of those workers who have more experience, higher education, and have never been injured before after the implementation of new safety control measures on construction site. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Electrocution is among the ‘fatal four’ in US construction according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Learning from failures is believed to be an effective path to success, with deaths being the most serious system failures. This paper examined the failures in electrical safety by analysing all electrical fatality investigations (N= 132) occurring between 1989 and 2010 from the Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation programme that is completed by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. Results reveal the features of the electrical fatalities in construction and disclose the most common electrical safety challenges on construction sites. This research also suggests the sociotechnical system breakdowns and the less effectiveness of current safety training programmes may significantly contribute to worker's unsafe behaviours and electrical fatality occurrences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper quantitatively motivates the need for active monitoring of occupational safety incident data through the use of cumulative sum (CUSUM) control charts. The frequency of incidents within a subset of historical accident data is analysed. The performance of Poisson CUSUM and exponential CUSUM (time-between-events) charts is compared in an illustrative example to show that shorter periods of aggregation and time-between-events monitoring lead to more timely indications of increased accident frequency. An extension showing the anticipated performance of these charts with real-time data is given. Various adjustments to the monitoring system are also simulated to show that quick implementation of hazard controls can significantly impact safety performance. Decreases in the frequency of safety incidents as a result of implemented hazard controls can also be monitored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the concept of ‘health literacy’ used in the US, we developed an analogous measure specific to safety in the workplace labeled ‘occupational health literacy’ (OHL) and investigated whether OHL is a protective factor against work-related injury (WRI) among adolescents. Using cross-sectional survey data from 2262 14 to 18-year olds in five high schools across the US, we found that OHL (level of occupational safety and health (OSH) information and training received combined with knowledge and awareness of OSH information and concepts) is positively associated with WRI prevalence. This association appears to be largely driven by the OHL subscale on respondents’ receipt of safety training, which likely represents job hazardousness and may be overwhelming any protective effect of OHL on work injury. This exploratory study has shown that more precise measurement of OHL and confounding variables (job hazardousness) will be crucial in further studies exploring a OHL–WRI relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates occupational health and safety practices in manufacturing enterprises within Jordanian industrial estates. Response rates were 21.9%, 58.6% and 70.8% for small, medium and large sized enterprises, respectively. Survey results show that most companies comply with state regulations, provide necessary facilities to enhance safety and provide several measures to limit and control hazards. On the negative side, little attention is given to safety training that might be due to the lack of related regulations and follow-up, financial limitations or lack of awareness on the importance of safety training. In addition, results show that ergonomic hazards, noise and hazardous chemicals are largely present. Accident statistics show that medium enterprises have the highest accident cases per enterprise, and chemical industries reported highest total number of accidents per enterprise. The outcomes of this study establish a base for appropriate safety recommendations to enhance the awareness and commitment of companies to appropriate safety rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to describe the extent, nature, age distribution and external causes of older-worker fatalities and to provide baseline data for future studies. The methods included retrospective descriptive cohort study using existing population-based mortality data. The study examined work-related fatalities aged 55 years and older, 2000–2009, in Australia following coronial investigation. Of the 336 fatalities identified, almost all (96.3%) were male. The industry with most deaths wasagriculture, forestry and fishing(37.8%), followed bytransport, postal and warehousing(19.3%) andconstruction(16.6%). The most frequent injury mechanism was transport-related (40.4%). With predicted workforce ageing, older-worker deaths will become a significant public health issue. Employers and authorities will need to understand older-workers characteristics and vulnerabilities to enable appropriate injury prevention strategy implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Injury is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE is a rapidly developing country with fast economic growth, demographical and environmental changes that are associated with new hazards emerging at a similar pace. The UAE as a federal entity has federal and local systems responsible for safety policy, regulations and enforcement. To set priorities for safety promotion and injury prevention, it is necessary to have data on the most frequent external causes of injury and the main individual, equipment and environmental risk factors that contribute to injury. However good quality data for injury prevention are scarce. The aim of this paper is to describe the scale of injury as a public health problem in the UAE, and the development of safety policies, regulations and promotion efforts with special emphasis on traffic, occupational and child safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupational accidents in the Finnish local government sector in 2004 are analysed by gender, age and occupation class in order to identify particular risk groups. The accident data are compared with data concerning the number of employees, using frequency distributions and accident incidence rates. The possibilities of providing occupation class-specific accident incidence rates are also discussed. According to the results, commuting accidents are more common and severe in the local government sector than in general in Finland. In the local public sector occupational accidents more often involved women than men. Compared to other age groups and occupational classes, occupational accidents are more common in the age band of 45–54 and in the occupational class of medical and nursing work. However, compared to the employees' data, men and younger employees had an increased workplace accident risk, while women and older employees had an increased risk of commuting accidents. The highest accident incidence rate was in farming and animal husbandry work. Currently, the calculation of occupation class-specific accident incidence rates is difficult. Improving the consistency of the occupation classifications used in the various data sources would facilitate more reliable calculation of rates. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Multi-purpose recreation facilities (MPRFs) are a popular setting for physical activity and it is therefore important that they are safe for all patrons. However, the attitudes of MPRF users towards safety are a potential barrier to the success of injury prevention programmes implemented within MPRFs. This article reports a survey of the safety attitudes of over 700 users of four indoor MPRFs. Factor analysis of 12 five-point Likert scale statements showed that the attitudes clustered around three major dimensions - the importance of safety, the benefits of safety and the perceptions of injury risk. Together, these three dimensions accounted for 49% of the variability in the attitudes. More than 85% of respondents agreed/strongly agreed that: safety was an important aspect of physical activity participation; being injured affected enjoyment of physical activity; people should adopt appropriate safety measures for all physical activity; and individuals were responsible for their own safety. The MPRF users, particularly women and older people, were generally safety conscious, believed in adopting safety measures, and were willing to take responsibility for their own safety. Facility managers can be confident that if they provide evidence-based injury prevention interventions in these settings, then users will respond appropriately and adopt the promoted behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reduction of risk of occupational injuries is one of the most challenging problems faced by industry. Assessing and comparing risks involved in different jobs is one of the important steps towards reducing injury risk. In this study, a comprehensive scheme is given for assessing and comparing injury risks with the development of injury count model, injury risk model and derived statistics. The hazards present in a worksystem and the nature of the job carried out by workers are perceived as important drivers of injury potential of a worksystem. A loglinear model is used to quantify injury counts and the event-tree approach with joint, marginal and conditional probabilities is used to quantify injury risk. A case study was carried out in an underground coalmine. Finally a number of indices are proposed for the case study mine to capture risk of injury in different jobs. The findings of this study will help in designing injury intervention strategies for the mine studied. The job-wise risk profiles will be used to prioritise the jobs for redesign. The absolute indices can be applied for benchmarking job-wise risks and the relative indices can be used for comparing job-wise risks across worksystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of various factors in coal mine-related injuries was investigated using a case-control design. The study setting was two neighbouring underground coal mines in India. Cases comprised mine workers (n = 150) who had sustained a prior mine-related injury from a population of 1000 underground workers. Controls were selected from those mineworkers with no history of a prior mine-related injury using frequency matching (n = 150) from the same source population. Data were collected from the cases and controls using a structured survey questionnaire. Based on the responses of the participants, each factor was grouped into three categories. High-low plots and Chi-square tests were conducted to explore the differences between the cases and controls. Bivariate logistic regression was run to estimate the crude odds of injuries, while multivariate logistic regression estimated the adjusted odds of injuries to the workers for the various variable categories. High-low plots and the Chi-square test clearly revealed that the cases and controls significantly differed in their responses for the variables studied. Accident-involved workers take more risks, are negatively affected, job dissatisfied, feel more production pressure, job stress, work hazards and are less job involved and are more dissatisfied with safety environment and social climate of the mines compared to the controls. The multivariate odds of injuries to high risk taking, negatively affected and job dissatisfied workers are 1.21, 9.34 and 2.00 times more compared to their lowest counterparts. Similarly, workers satisfied with the overall safety practice and safety equipment availability and maintenance are 1.5 and 3.12 times less likely to be injured than the workers with little or no satisfaction with the above factors. It is therefore concluded that negative affectivity and job dissatisfaction are the two major personal level factors that contribute more towards accident/injury in the mines studied. Identification and elimination/reduction of negative attitudes are of utmost importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Great variations occur in injury mortality and morbidity, which reflect the individual's age, gender, social and economic group, cultural and ethnic group and the place in which they live. This paper concentrates on social and economic factors and their relationship with injuries in higher income countries. Particular attention is paid to childhood injuries. The paper addresses the question of how it is possible to bridge the gap related to disadvantage and injury, through the examination of descriptive, explanatory and intervention studies and policy initiatives. Progress on addressing the gap is still in its early stages, with many research gaps related to explanatory and intervention studies and few examples of policy initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retrospective reviews provide unique opportunity to assess changing approaches to trauma in recent history and identify modifiable behaviours through the lessons of the past. The objective of this paper is to depict the nearly one-century long, life-course injury experience of seniors residing in Velestino, an agricultural Greek town, and comment on neglected determinants and transitional patterns following historical and socio-cultural events in the area. The life-course experience of non-fatal injuries, requiring hospitalisation, has been reported byN= 643 study participants, aged 65–102 years. Injuries were grouped and assessed in three ways: chronologically, by body part and by type. Overall, 124 injuries have been recorded over the past 70 years; the majority sustained by men (58.6%), and the highest number of injuries occurred during the recent decades, 1980s–1990s. For the age groups 26–45 and 46–65 years old, traffic (37.5% and 22.2%) and occupational (25.0% and 22.2%) events have been the commonest cause of injury, whereas injuries occurring at home were primary hazard (25.8%) for the elderly. Moreover, meaningful historical connections with warfare and migration movements were made. In retrospect, socio-cultural factors emerge as important predictors of certain injuries, pointing to the number of factors that should be taken into account when designing injury-prevention programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the use of factorial experimental designs on the analysis of occurrence of injury and accidents. Topics discussed include the advantage of factorial designs used in intervention studies such as the increase efficiency of intervention study using the method, its limitations, and the used of analysis of variance (ANOVA) to analyze the factorial designs.

The article focuses on the issue of injury control by briefly outlining various articles and reports contained within the issue. According to the author, in an advanced industrial society, the description of the nature and magnitude of the problem has advanced considerably over the past few decades. The articles contained within the issue are based on selected presentations delivered at two meetings held in June, 2004 in conjunction with the 7th World Injury Conference: The International Seminar on Injury Research Methods, and the Fifth International Conference on Measuring the Burden of Injury. These articles cover four major topics: the best overall indicator of the injury problem, the development and application of new measures of injury outcome, motor vehicle traffic safety, and the importance of program evaluation. Some articles also describe a major multinational effort to collect data on one of the major injury problems.

The article presents a calendar of events related to the field of injury prevention and control that are to be held in 2006 across the world. The sixth international conference on occupational stress and health, titled "Work, Stress and Health 2006: Making a Difference in the Workplace," is reported to be held during March 2-4 in Miami, Florida. The 12th International Winter Road Congress, PIARC, reportedly, will be held in Torino, Italy, during March 27-30. The 6th International Conference on Measuring the Burden of Injury will be held on April 1 in Durban, South Africa. The 2nd International Seminar on Injury Research Methods is scheduled to held during April 6-7 in Cape Town, South Africa. The 3rd International Conference Working on Safety will be held during September 12-15 in the Netherlands.