Results of a Fall Prevention Educational Intervention for Residential Construction

Details

• Journal Article:
  Safety Science
• Personal Author:
  Evanoff, Bradley A. ; Dale, Ann M. ; Zeringue, Angelique ; Fuchs, Mark ; Gaal, John ; Lipscomb, Hester J. ; Kaskutas, Vicki
• Description:
  Falls from height remain the leading cause of fatalities in residential construction. We used results from a comprehensive needs assessment to guide changes in fall prevention training in a joint union-contractor carpenter apprenticeship program; including surveys of 1018 apprentice carpenter and observational audits at 197 residential construction sites. The revised training utilized hands-on, participatory training methods preferred by the learners to address the safety gaps in the curriculum; including ladder use, leading edge work, truss setting, and use of scaffolding and personal fall arrest. We compared apprentice surveys (n = 1273) and residential worksite audits (n = 207) 1-2 years post-training with baseline measures. Apprentices working residential construction were more likely to fall from heights (OR = 2.26, 95% CI 1.59-3.21) than those working commercial construction. The revised training resulted in improved fall safety knowledge, self-reported worksite behaviors, risk perceptions, and safety climate, even after adjusting for temporal trends. We also observed significant improvements in fall safety compliance in most domains of the worksite audit, with larger changes observed in areas emphasized in the training, demonstrating specificity of the effect. Greater effects were noted in small and medium-sized contractors, who often have limited resources to devote to safety. Self-reported falls fell from 18.2 to 14.5 per 100 person-years of work. This research supports growing evidence that worksite safety can be improved by training. This curriculum could be readily adapted to other union apprenticeship programs. Fall safety of inexperienced residential construction workers' should remain a focus of future research. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accidental Falls Accidents Construction Industry Occupational Health Safety Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Injury Prevention; Fall Prevention; Occupational Safety; Construction; Technology; Training Programs Construction Workers; Training; Falls; Fall Protection; Ladders; Scaffolds; Safety Practices; Safety Climate; Injury Prevention;
• Source:
  Saf Sci 2016 Nov; 89:301-307
• ISSN:
  0925-7535
• Pubmed ID:
  35462959
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC9028431
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  U54 OH008307/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/ ; U60 OH009762/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/ ; UL1 TR000448/TR/NCATS NIH HHSUnited States/ ; UL1 TR002345/TR/NCATS NIH HHSUnited States/
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; Missouri ; North Carolina ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 7
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  15 pdf pages
• Volume:
  89
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20065852
• Contact Point Address:
  Bradley Evanoff, Division of General Medical Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, 4523 Clayton Avenue, Campus Box 8005, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
• Email:
  david.rempel@ucsf.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2017
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction
• Performing Organization:
  CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training, Silver Spring, Maryland
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b5b083c1629efbda3eeb38d8a4c697b09118b34402ec41010643fa52166d135ce5fffcfa99c340ed8e26a3037df290b09e62b59abcd6f2e0c284b396a016f56f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/116853/cdc_116853_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 154.62 KB ]