Occupational risk perception of construction workers: a cross sectional study

Introduction

Construction workers are often exposed to significant injury risk. The aim of our study is to assess their occupational hazards and injury risk perception.

Methods

We administered 256 questionnaires to construction workers. The survey was aimed at collecting information regarding occupational risk and hazard exposure perception, risk control and behavioral self-assessment. We analyzed the data obtained in order to highlight any associations between injury risk perception and anamnestic, occupational, behavioral or perceptual factors.

Results

Participants were prevalently males (92.37%) aged 21-60 years (94%). They showed a job seniority level of 21.3 (11.51) on average and, ranging from a 1 to 10 score, a danger awareness of 6.8 (2.9), a lack of prevention measures 6.0 (3.3), an improper behavior of 7.3 (2.7), an unpredictable fate of 6.0 (2.9). These factors resulted significantly associated with the injury risk perception. Multivariable analysis highlighted that the injury risk perception was associated with the lack of prevention measure and unpredictable fate. On the other hand, we found a negative association with the workers' improper behaviors.

Conclusion

Workers' perception showed fairly uniform average values even when occupational risk was demonstrated. Our analysis suggests a positive correlation between injury risk perception and the idea that injuries are due both to fate and to chance; it also shows a negative correlation between injury risk perception and the idea that injuries are due to improper behavior. A lack of fully comparable studies confirms the need for further studies on the injury risk perception of construction workers.

A GRU-Based Model for Detecting Common Accidents of Construction Workers

Fall accidents in the construction industry have been studied over several decades and identified as a common hazard and the leading cause of fatalities. Inertial sensors have recently been used to detect accidents of workers in construction sites, such as falls or trips. IMU-based systems for detecting fall-related accidents have been developed and have yielded satisfactory accuracy in laboratory settings. Nevertheless, the existing systems fail to uphold consistent accuracy and produce a significant number of false alarms when deployed in real-world settings, primarily due to the intricate nature of the working environments and the behaviors of the workers. In this research, the authors redesign the aforementioned laboratory experiment to target situations that are prone to false alarms based on the feedback obtained from workers in real construction sites. In addition, a new algorithm based on recurrent neural networks was developed to reduce the frequencies of various types of false alarms. The proposed model outperforms the existing benchmark model (i.e., hierarchical threshold model) with higher sensitivities and fewer false alarms in detecting stumble (100% sensitivity vs. 40%) and fall (95% sensitivity vs. 65%) events. However, the model did not outperform the hierarchical model in detecting coma events in terms of sensitivity (70% vs. 100%), but it did generate fewer false alarms (5 false alarms vs. 13).

Willingness to accept metaverse safety training for construction workers based on extended UTAUT

Safety training (ST) is essential in avoiding unsafe behavior of construction workers. With the rise of metaverse technology, metaverse safety training (MST) has gradually become a new model to guide construction workers in safety production. An in-depth study of construction workers' willingness to accept the metaverse safety training (WAMST) helps improve its effectiveness, but studies need to pay more attention to it. This study constructs a conceptual model of WAMST for construction workers, and the influencing factors of WAMST are explained based on the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). It established a Structural equation modeling to verify the relationship between influencing factors. An example verifies the feasibility of the model. The results show that the framework significantly contributes to the willingness of construction workers to participate and improves safety awareness. Specifically, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and convenient conditions significantly affect the construction workers' willingness to accept. Convenient conditions have a direct effect on actual behavior. Willingness to accept plays a mediating role between performance expectancy and actual behavior. Perceived trust moderates the effect between willingness to accept and actual behavior, and the force of positive interpretation increases proportionally. It confirms how to improve the safety capacity of construction workers and provides references for governments, enterprises, and projects to formulate ST strategies.

Vibrotactile Alerting to Prevent Accidents in Highway Construction Work Zones: An Exploratory Study

Struck-by accidents are the leading cause of injuries in highway construction work zones. Despite numerous safety interventions, injury rates remain high. As workers' exposure to traffic is sometimes unavoidable, providing warnings can be an effective way to prevent imminent threats. Such warnings should consider work zone conditions that can hinder the timely perception of alerts, e.g., poor visibility and high noise level. This study proposes a vibrotactile system integrated into workers' conventional personal protective equipment (PPE), i.e., safety vests. Three experiments were conducted to assess the feasibility of using vibrotactile signals to warn workers in highway environments, the perception and performance of vibrotactile signals at different body locations, and the usability of various warning strategies. The results revealed vibrotactile signals had a 43.6% faster reaction time than audio signals, and the perceived intensity and urgency levels on the sternum, shoulders, and upper back were significantly higher than the waist. Among different notification strategies used, providing a moving direction imposed significantly lower mental workloads and higher usability scores than providing a hazard direction. Further research should be conducted to reveal factors that affect alerting strategy preference towards a customizable system to elicit higher usability among users.

Feasibility Analysis of Using Channel State Information (CSI) Acquired from Wi-Fi Routers for Construction Worker Fall Detection

Accidental falls represent a major cause of fatal injuries for construction workers. Failure to seek medical attention after a fall can significantly increase the risk of death for construction workers. Wearable sensors, computer vision, and manual techniques are common modalities for detecting worker falls in the literature. However, they are severely constrained by issues such as cost, lighting, background, clutter, and privacy. To address the problems associated with the existing proposed methods, a new method has been conceived to identify construction worker falls by analyzing the CSI signals extracted from commercial Wi-Fi routers. In this research context, our study aimed to investigate the potential of using Channel State Information (CSI) to identify falls among construction workers. To achieve the aim of this study, CSI data corresponding to 360 sets of activities were collected from six construction workers on real construction sites. The results indicate that (1) the behavior of construction workers is highly correlated with the magnitude of CSI, even in real construction sites, and (2) the CSI-based method for identifying construction worker falls has an accuracy of 99% and can also accurately distinguish between falls and fall-like actions. The present study makes a significant contribution to the field by demonstrating the feasibility of utilizing low-cost Wi-Fi routers for the continuous monitoring of fall incidents among construction workers. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first investigation to address the issue of fall detection using commercial Wi-Fi devices in real-world construction environments. Considering the dynamic nature of construction sites, the new method developed in this study helps to detect falls at construction sites automatically and helps injured construction workers to seek medical attention on time.

Can Professionalization Alleviate Job Burnout in Construction Workers in China? A Multivariable Mediating Model

Burnout is at all-time highs across modern professions. As a typical labor-intensive industry, the high-pressure and task-driven nature of the construction industry makes construction workers more prone to burnout. It is still unclear whether increasing the professionalization level can lessen the many harmful consequences of job burnout on construction workers' employment. Therefore, this study examined the influencing mechanism of professionalization on job burnout in the construction industry. First, a theoretical model based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory was developed with workload, job insecurity, and work-family conflict as moderating variables. A reliable sample of 441 Chinese construction workers were then recruited in the investigation. The data analysis was supported by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). The results indicated that: (i) an increase in the professionalization level could be directly effective in alleviating job burnout among construction workers; (ii) workload and work-family conflict could play an independent and continuous mediating role between professionalization and job burnout; and (iii) while job insecurity caused by a low professionalization did not have a direct impact on job burnout, it could have an indirect impact on job burnout through workload and work-family conflict, respectively. This study enriches the literature on job burnout among construction workers, as well as provides a theoretical basis and practical management guidance for Chinese construction companies to alleviate job burnout in workers from a professionalization standpoint.

Safety Stressors and Construction Workers' Safety Performance: The Mediating Role of Ego Depletion and Self-Efficacy

As an important influencing factor of construction workers' safety performance, safety stressor has received increasing attention. However, no consensus has been reached on the relationship between different types of safety stressors and the subdimensions of safety performance, and the mechanism by which safety stressors influence safety performance remains unclear. This study proposed a multiple mediation model with ego depletion and self-efficacy as mediators between safety stressors and workers' safety performance. Data were collected from 335 construction workers in China. Results demonstrated that: (1) the three types of safety stressors (i.e., safety role ambiguity, safety role conflict, and interpersonal safety conflict) all had negative effects on workers' safety performance (i.e., safety compliance and safety participation); (2) self-efficacy mediated all the relationships between the three safety stressors and safety performance; (3) ego depletion only mediated part of the relationships between the three safety stressors and safety performance; and (4) only part of the multiple-step mediating effects through ego depletion and self-efficacy were supported. This study made contributions by shedding light on the mechanism by which safety stressors influence workers' safety performance and providing more empirical evidence for the relationship between various safety stressors and the subdimensions of safety performance. Additionally, targeted strategies for improving workers' safety performance were proposed according to the findings.

Development and validation of a cognitive model-based novel questionnaire for measuring potential unsafe behaviors of construction workers

The accident death rate in the construction industry is one of the highest among all occupational accidents. In order to identify the most common and direct causes of accidents, the unsafe behaviors of construction workers must be investigated, which necessities a questionnaire. Considering that safety climate research and behavior safety research barely explained the causes of unsafe behavior, this research was conducted from a cognitive model-based perspective. A new questionnaire was designed to evaluate the potentially unsafe behaviors, and a cognitive model with 11 factors was adopted. After verification by exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis, the new questionnaire showed good validity (content validity index < 0.79 and content validity ratio aaaa 0.42, average variance extracted > 0.5) and reliability (Cronbach's α > 0.7, composite reliability > 0.7), and the cognitive model fitted well. Therefore, the new questionnaire is effective and reliable in assessing the causes of unsafe behaviors of construction workers.

Quantitative assessment and influence factors of facial wrinkle situation in male construction workers in Beijing

OBJECTIVE

To investigate current situation of facial wrinkles of male construction workers in Beijing area and to discuss the correlative factors.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of 149 male construction works and 63 male non-construction workers in Beijing were required to complete a questionnaire on their exposure to sunlight, dust, noise, and heat in their workplace environment. Their facial wrinkle scores were measured by VISIA Complexion Analysis System. The two-sample t test, chi-square test, and multiple linear regression were used for statistical analysis RESULTS: The exposure to sunlight, dust, noise, and heat of construction workers was significantly higher than that of non-construction workers (P < .01). The wrinkle score of construction workers between 20 and 29 years old was significantly higher than that of non-construction workers (t = 4.077, P < .01). The facial wrinkle score of construction workers(r = 0.657, P < .01) and non-construction workers (r = 0.681, P < .01) was both positively correlated with age. The wrinkle score of construction workers was related to age, sunlight, and noise(P < .01).

CONCLUSION

The wrinkle score of male construction workers between 20 and 29 years old is significantly higher than that of non-construction workers in Beijing. Age, sunlight, and noise were the main influencing factors of wrinkle.

Occupational allergic contact dermatitis: A 24-year, retrospective cohort study from Turkey

BACKGROUND

Limited data exist on occupational allergic contact dermatitis (OACD) in Turkey.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the epidemiologic profile of OACD in Turkey.

METHODS

A retrospective cohort study on 294 patients with OACD among 2801 consecutively patch-tested patients in the Allergy Unit of the Dermatology Department of İstanbul Faculty of Medicine between 1996 and 2019.

RESULTS

The overall prevalence of OACD was 10.5%, showing a male predominance. OACD was most frequently seen in construction workers (45.2%), followed by hairdressers, metalworkers, health care workers, and miscellaneous. The main relevant allergens were chromium in cement, thiurams in rubber gloves, hairdressing chemicals, resins/glues/plastics, metals, isothiazolinones, and fragrances. Hands were the mainly involved site (95.6%). Airborne eczema was observed in 21.4%. Hand and foot eczema and co-sensitizations to chrome and thiuram and chrome and cobalt were significantly associated with being a construction worker. Sensitizations to isothiazolinones in house painters, ammonium persulfate and p-phenylenediamine in hairdressers, and colophonium increased after 2010.

CONCLUSION

This was the largest group of data on OACD from Turkey, reflecting the importance of rubber glove allergy in all occupations and the striking increase in ammonium persulfate allergy among hairdressers. Chrome and cobalt were still the main cement allergens in Turkey, where the cement directive is not yet in force.

Factors Associated with Poor Quality of Sleep in Construction Workers: A Secondary Data Analysis

This study aimed to explore factors associated with poor quality of sleep in construction workers. This study was cross-sectional, correlational in design and used secondary data from fatigue instrument development study. We analyzed the data from 206 participants aged over 19 years who worked at construction sites for more than 6 months. We used multivariate binary logistic regression to identify the factors associated with poor quality of sleep. We classified the two sleep quality groups based on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score, and almost 63% of them were classified as the poor quality of sleep group. Based on multivariate binary logistic regression (Cox and Snell R2 = 0.317, Nagelkerke R2 = 0.429), the poor quality of sleep group tended to sleep for a shorter duration before the working day, and not only showed lower sleep latency and higher levels of daytime dysfunction and discomfort in daily life, but also had more chronic disease, depressive symptoms, and higher physical fatigue. Our study findings support that there are many modifiable factors associated with poor sleep and a high rate of poor quality of sleep occurred in construction workers. Thus, clinicians should consider providing diverse options for applying interventions to ensure better sleep, fatigue management, and depression prevention in construction workers after considering their unique characteristics.

Development of a multimedia intervention to improve pneumoconiosis prevention in construction workers using RE-AIM framework

Pneumoconiosis is a common occupational lung disease among construction workers. Educational interventions targeting specific ethnic groups of construction workers are of benefit for pneumoconiosis prevention. The aim of this study was to develop a multimedia educational intervention for pneumoconiosis prevention for South Asian construction workers, and to evaluate its feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness in increasing knowledge of pneumoconiosis, modifying beliefs about pneumoconiosis, and enhancing intention to implement measures for its prevention among the workers. This evaluation was performed using the Reach-Effectiveness-Adoption-Implementation-Maintenance framework. A one-group design was adopted and intervention mapping was used to guide the process of intervention development, while the Health Belief Model guided the development of intervention content. The intervention was delivered at construction sites, ethnic minority associations and South Asian community centres. Data were collected via surveys completed at pre-intervention, post-intervention and 3 months after the intervention. A total of 1002 South Asian construction workers participated in the intervention. The participants reported a moderate-to-large increase in knowledge, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, cues to action and self-efficacy (Cohen's d: 0.37-0.89), a small reduction in perceived barriers (Cohen's d = 0.12) and a moderate improvement in attitudes and intention to practice (Cohen's d: 0.45, 0.51) at post-intervention. A follow-up survey of 121 participants found that the implementation of preventive measures appeared to increase. Overall, the findings demonstrate that the implementation of a culturally adapted multimedia educational intervention could be an effective approach to improving knowledge, self-efficacy and intention regarding pneumoconiosis prevention among South Asian construction workers.

Influencing Mechanism of Job Satisfaction on Safety Behavior of New Generation of Construction Workers Based on Chinese Context: The Mediating Roles of Work Engagement and Safety Knowledge Sharing

China's construction industry developed rapidly and safety production has become a vital issue. Improving the safety behavior of construction workers is an important measure to effectively decrease construction safety accidents. At present, a New Generation of Construction Workers (NGCWs) born after 1980 has gradually become the main force of construction companies in China and the special group characteristics coming from the intergenerational difference may make them behave differently in safety-related activities, therefore, it is very important to study how to promote their safety behavior. This paper aimed to explore the influencing mechanism of job satisfaction on the safety behavior of NGCWs and examine the mediating role of safety knowledge sharing and work engagement. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling analysis were applied to test the theoretical model. Empirical research results indicated that job satisfaction can effectively promote safety behavior through safety knowledge sharing and work engagement. Safety knowledge sharing plays a complete mediating role between job satisfaction and safety compliance behavior, as well as between job satisfaction and safety participation behavior. Moreover, work engagement plays a complete mediating role between job satisfaction and safety participation behavior, which can provide valuable management references for China's construction companies to strengthen their safety behavior.

Impact of Work Environment and Occupational Stress on Safety Behavior of Individual Construction Workers

This study was conducted to investigate how the work environment and psychological state influence construction workers’ perceptions and safety behaviors. Structural equation modeling was developed with five factors on the working environment (i.e., job demand, job control, job support, rewards, organizational justice, lack of reward), two factors on workers’ psychological condition (i.e., depression and trait anxiety), and four factors on safety perception (i.e., safety motivation, safety knowledge, and safety compliance and participation behaviors). Sample data were collected from 399 construction workers working at 29 construction sites in South Korea and analyzed the direct and indirect effects between those factors. The results showed that construction workers’ safety compliance and participation behavior are related to their safety knowledge and motivation, and depression and trait anxiety were found to lower safety motivation, knowledge, and, eventually, safety behavior. Job demands, lack of job control, lack of reward, and lack of organizational justice negatively impacted safety behavior. In contrast, job support did not show a significant relationship with safety behavior.

Development of an IoT-Based Construction Worker Physiological Data Monitoring Platform at High Temperatures

This study presents an IoT-based construction worker physiological data monitoring platform using an off-the-shelf wearable smart band. The developed platform is designed for construction workers performing under high temperatures, and the platform is composed of two parts: an overall heat assessment (OHS) and a personal management system (PMS). OHS manages the breaktimes for groups of workers based using a thermal comfort index (TCI), as provided by the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), while PMS assesses the individual health risk level based on fuzzy theory using data acquired from a commercially available smart band. The device contains three sensors (PPG, Acc, and skin temperature), two modules (LoRa and GPS), and a power supply, which are embedded into a microcontroller (MCU). Thus, approved personnel can monitor the status as well as the current position of a construction worker via a PC or smartphone, and can make necessary decisions remotely. The platform was tested in both indoor and outdoor environment for reliability, achieved less than 1% of error, and received satisfactory feedback from on-site users.

Safety Doesn't Happen by Accident: A Longitudinal Investigation on the Antecedents of Safety Behavior

Research recognizes the shared perceptions of the priority attributed to safety in comparison to other organizational goals (i.e., safety climate) as a potential antecedent of safety behavior among construction workers. This type of climate can dismantle barriers to the promotion of effective strategies to mitigate workplace hazards. On the other hand, the current understanding of the underlying process that links the perception of a safety climate to the implementation of safety behavior is far from being exhaustive. Accordingly, this study aimed to explore the role of risk perception and safety knowledge in explaining the positive impact of safety climate before attending a training course (Time 0) and safety behavior after the training completion (Time 1). Data were collected at two time-points on a sample of N = 278 construction workers taking part in different safety training courses promoted by a vocational training organization in Northern Italy. The hypothesized relationships were tested using a serial mediation model bootstrapping approach. The obtained results indicated that the perception of a safety climate at Time 0 (T0) among construction workers is associated with higher risk perception and safety knowledge that, in turn, resulted in a higher implementation of safety behavior at Time 1 (T1). These findings contribute to the understanding of those factors that constitute a fertile ground for preventing injuries and accidents in the construction sector.

The Effects of Psychological Factors on Perceptions of Productivity in Construction Sites in Japan by Worker Age

The construction industry is a work environment that poses many dangers to workers, with many hidden factors that affect work awareness. It is important for construction companies to ensure a balance between productivity and safety in the work environment. The purpose of this study was to identify relationships between the feeling of safety in the work environment, proactive work behavior, job satisfaction, work skills, team performance, and health risk indicators, such as heart rate, among construction workers of different ages. Based on previous research, we examined the hypothetical perception model. We then administered a questionnaire survey to construction workers (N = 357) employed at a Japanese construction company. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), we investigated the impact of health risk indicators on worker perceptions among young and older workers. The results showed that workers’ heart rate and body mass index (BMI) had a negative effect on the feeling of safety and proactive work behavior among older workers, but showed no significant relationship among young workers. However, regardless of workers’ age, it was clear that the feeling of safety affects job satisfaction, and that work skills and proactive work behaviors affect perceptions regarding team performance.

Understanding the Sociocognitive Process of Construction Workers' Unsafe Behaviors: An Agent-Based Modeling Approach

Previous literature has recognized that workers’ unsafe behavior is the combined result of both isolated individual cognitive processes and their interaction with others. Based on the consideration of both individual cognitive factors and social organizational factors, this paper aims to develop an Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) approach to explore construction workers’ sociocognitive processes under the interaction with managers, coworkers, and foremen. The developed model is applied to explore the causes of cognitive failure of construction workers and the influence of social groups and social organizational factors on the workers’ unsafe behavior. The results indicate that (1) workers’ unsafe behaviors are gradually reduced with the interaction with managers, foremen, and workers; (2) the foreman is most influential in reducing workers’ unsafe behaviors, and their demonstration role can hardly be ignored; (3) the failure of sociocognitive process of construction workers is affected by many factors, and cognitive process errors could be corrected under social norms; and (4) among various social organizational factors, social identity has the most obvious effect on reducing workers’ unsafe behaviors, and preventive measures are more effective than reactive measures in reducing workers’ unsafe behaviors.

Occupational Lead Poisoning in a Patient with Acute Abdomen and Normocytic Anemia

We herein report a 24-year-old male construction worker with occupational lead poisoning who presented with acute abdomen and normocytic anemia. The levels of urinary delta-aminolevulinic acid and free erythrocyte protoporphyrin were elevated without any increase in the level of urine porphobilinogen. Detection of an elevated blood lead level of 100 μg/dL confirmed a diagnosis of lead poisoning. Chelation therapy with calcium disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate resulted in prompt improvement of the clinical symptoms and the blood lead level. Clinicians should be aware that lead poisoning caused by occupational exposure can still occur sporadically in construction workers in Japan.

A Survey of Work-Related Pain Prevalence Among Construction Workers in Hong Kong: A Case-Control Study

Construction workers undertake demanding physical work and face high risk of injuries in poor working environments. This case-control study investigated the extent of their musculoskeletal pain incidence at work. A total of 2021 construction workers in different trades were interviewed on-site in a survey from December 2017 to December 2018. The survey results revealed that the pain prevalence of the subjects in the last 24 h was 10.6 %. The worst and top most common pain spots caused by work were central lower back, left/right shoulders, and knees. Regarding pain management, their most common method was to ignore the pain (21.4%). The average percentage of pain relief after receiving treatment in the 24 h was 37.12%. Besides, significant differences were found between the pain and non-pain groups regarding their employment duration in current job or their average sleep duration in the 24 h. The study showed that those with multiple and bilateral pain sites had pain interference on their living activities.

Development of Construction Workers Job Stress Scale to Study and the Relationship between Job Stress and Safety Behavior: An Empirical Study in Beijing

Job stress is considered one of the critical causes of construction workers' unsafe behaviors. As a mainstay industry in many countries, the construction industry has a considerable number of employees and the research on how job stress affects workers' unsafe behaviors has important theoretical and practical significance to improve construction safety performance through better job stress management. In this study, the authors thoroughly reviewed the literature and conducted semi-structured interviews to identify the dimensions of job stress, designed the job stress scale and cited the safety behavior measurement scale. After that, a questionnaire survey was developed using the proposed measurement scale and distributed to the construction employees from a project in Beijing. One hundred fifty responses were collected and analyzed using reliability analysis to validate the scale's internal consistency. Results from factor analysis indicate that the scales of job stress measurement can be grouped into six dimensions. To demonstrate the applicability of the developed scale on construction safety management research, the collected data was used to test the hypothesis that job stress has a negative correlation with safety behavior. Results show that the hypothesis is valid, and there is a negative correlation between job stress and safety behavior. In addition, finer results of the relationship between the six dimensions of job stress and safety behavior can be obtained. In summary, this study developed an improved stress scale for construction workers in China, and the proposed scale was validated by analyzing the data from an empirical study in Beijing.

An Embedded Sensory System for Worker Safety: Prototype Development and Evaluation

At a construction site, workers mainly rely on two senses, which are sight and sound, in order to perceive their physical surroundings. However, they are often hindered by the nature of most construction sites, which are usually dynamic, loud, and complicated. To overcome these challenges, this research explored a method using an embedded sensory system that might offer construction workers an artificial sensing ability to better perceive their surroundings. This study identified three parameters (i.e., intensity, signal length, and delay between consecutive pulses) needed for tactile-based signals for the construction workers to communicate quickly. We developed a prototype system based on these parameters, conducted experimental studies to quantify and validate the sensitivity of the parameters for quick communication, and analyzed test data to reveal what was added by this method in order to perceive information from the tactile signals. The findings disclosed that the parameters of tactile-based signals and their distinguishable ranges could be perceived in a short amount of time (i.e., a fraction of a second). Further experimentation demonstrated the capability of the identified unit signals combined with a signal mapping technique to effectively deliver simple information to individuals and offer an additional sense of awareness to the surroundings. The findings of this study could serve as a basis for future research in exploring advanced tactile-based messages to overcome challenges in environments for which communication is a struggle.

Evaluating the Physiological and Perceptual Responses of Wearing a Newly Designed Cooling Vest for Construction Workers

Construction workers are subjected to heat stress because of the hot environment, physically demanding tasks, and/or personal protective equipment. A tailor-made cooling vest that protects construction workers from heat-related injuries was developed. The purpose of the study is to examine a newly designed cooling vest's effectiveness in alleviating physiological and perceptual strain in a hot and humid environment. Twelve male participants performed two trials, i.e., cooling vest (VEST) and control (CON) in a climatic chamber controlled at 37°C temperature, 60% relative humidity, 0.3 m/s air velocity, and 450 W/m2 solar radiation to simulate the summer working environment of construction sites. Two bouts of treadmill exercise intermitted with 30-minute passive recovery were designed to simulate the practical work-rest schedule of the construction industry. The cooling vest was used during the passive recovery period in the VEST condition, and the results were compared with that of no cooling vest in the CON condition. The results revealed that the newly designed cooling vest can significantly alleviate heat strain and improve thermal comfort, based on the decrease in body temperature, heart rate, and subjective perceptions (including perceived exertion, thermal, wetness, and comfort sensation) of the participants. It can also prolong work duration in the subsequent exercise. The cooling countermeasures proposed in this study will be able to provide an effective solution in situations that involve repeated bouts of outdoor construction work.

construction workers

OBJECTIVE

To develop a fatigue assessment scale and test its reliability and validity for commercial construction workers.

METHODS

Using a two-phased approach, we first identified items (first phase) for the development of a Fatigue Assessment Scale for Construction Workers (FASCW) through review of existing scales in the scientific literature, key informant interviews (n = 11) and focus groups (three groups with six workers each) with construction workers. The second phase included assessment for the reliability, validity, and sensitivity of the new scale using a repeated-measures study design with a convenience sample of construction workers (n = 144).

RESULTS

Phase one resulted in a 16-item preliminary scale that after factor analysis yielded a final 10-item scale with two sub-scales ("Lethargy" and "Bodily Ailment"). During phase two, the FASCW and its subscales demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency (alpha coefficients were FASCW [0.91], Lethargy [0.86] and Bodily Ailment [0.84]) and acceptable test-retest reliability (Pearson Correlations Coefficients: 0.59-0.68; Intraclass Correlation Coefficients: 0.74-0.80). Correlation analysis substantiated concurrent and convergent validity. A discriminant analysis demonstrated that the FASCW differentiated between groups with arthritis status and different work hours.

CONCLUSIONS

The 10-item FASCW with good reliability and validity is an effective tool for assessing the severity of fatigue among construction workers.