The relationship between safety climate and injury rates across industries: the need to adjust for injury hazards

Details

• Personal Author:
  Chen PY ; Ho M ; Huang YH ; Smith GS
• Description:
  Previous studies have suggested that strong safety climates (shared perceptions of safe conducts at work) are associated with lower workplace-injury rates, but they rarely control for differences in industry hazards. Based on 33 companies, we assessed its association with injury rates using three rate based injury measures (claims per 100 employees, claims per 100,000 h worked, and claims per 1 million US dollars payroll), which were derived from workers' compensation injury claims. Linear regression models were used to test the predictability of safety climate on injury rates, followed by controlling for differences in hazard across industries gauged by national industry-specific injury rates. In the unadjusted model, company level safety climate were negatively and significantly associated with injury rates. However, all of the above associations were no longer apparent when controlling for the hazardousness of the specific industry. These findings may be due to over adjustment of hazard risk, or the overwhelming effects of industry specific hazards relative to safety climate effects that could not be differentiated with the statistical power in our study. Industry differences in hazard, conceptualized as one type of injury risk, however need to be considered when testing the association between safety climate and injury across different industries. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Aging Men Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Women
• Keywords:
  Accident Rates Accidents Age Groups Author Keywords: Safety Climate Employee Safety Control Hazards Humans Injuries Occupational Safety Programs Organizational Factors Risk Factors Safety Climate Safety Management Safety Measures Workers Workers' Compensation Workplace Injury

  More +
• ISSN:
  0001-4575
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Colorado ; Maryland ; Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 8
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  38
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20037869
• Citation:
  Accid Anal Prev 2006 May; 38(3):556-562
• Contact Point Address:
  Gordon S. Smith, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, 71 Frankland Rd, Hopkinton, MA 01748, USA
• Email:
  Gordon.Smith@LibertyMutual.com
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2006
• Performing Organization:
  Johns Hopkins University
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19940701
• Source Full Name:
  Accident Analysis and Prevention
• End Date:
  20050630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7921c9649ed438c70137c142693f6bf8b0abfa462e6a39e72c1e1b4ca7a85744e35e432a81265206368a4d50e88c33dae44407030abd486a301b775f3ef8f89e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/191795/cdc_191795_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 158.39 KB ]