Exploring Potential Methods to Evaluate Impact and Outcomes of Construction Safety and Health Research

Details

• Personal Author:
  Betit EP ; Mazzucca S ; Tabak R
• Description:
  Evaluating the impact of construction safety and health research findings and interventions is an ongoing research to practice (r2p) challenge due to the complex and fragmented nature of the industry. While evaluation approaches such as tracking the number of units sold, auditing project records, and observing use of an intervention on jobsites may work within a small market, with one employer, or with one manufacturer, these approaches would be too resource intensive to be practical on a national scale or for multiple interventions. CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training's (CPWR) r2p initiative supports all of the Center's research projects and currently uses metrics on the use of translational products (e.g., web metrics, distribution of print materials, requests from stakeholders) to measure awareness, and surveys of industry stakeholders to gather information on the use of research findings and interventions. While these approaches provide some important information on awareness and use, they offer limited insight into whether an intervention is penetrating the market and becoming the norm on job sites. The aim of this project was to support ongoing efforts to identify new and effective ways to evaluate CPWR's r2p initiatives. Specifically, there was a focus on dissemination and implementation (D&I) science and determining if establishing stakeholder evaluation panels, based on the Delphi Method, would be an appropriate approach or if there is a more sustainable option or combination of approaches to better gauge the r2p impact. This project involved three main elements: Conducting a literature review on the use of Delphi Panels in construction research and their potential use in assessing whether construction safety and health research findings are being used by target audiences of workers and contractors to reduce injuries and illnesses (r2p). Conducting a concept mapping study to understand researchers' and practitioners' perspectives on the best ways to find out whether evidence-based safer tools, work practices, and other resources are being used on construction jobsites. Using the findings from the literature review and concept mapping to determine if panels are the appropriate approach and to inform how such panels could be designed to evaluate impact, including the structure, membership composition, how the panels would interact and be assessed, and recruitment. The findings from these steps include: The Delphi Method has potential for engaging construction stakeholders in assessing the extent to which research findings are being adopted on construction sites and influencing safety and health outcomes. Although the concept mapping study did not engage the cross-section of stakeholders anticipated, the results supported the need to engage stakeholders in measuring impact and outcomes and identified other approaches that should be considered. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Construction Industry Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Construction Industry Construction Workers Injury Prevention Intervention Effectiveness R2p Research To Practice Initiative Safety Practices Translational Research
• Publisher:
  CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; Missouri ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 7
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-11
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20057924
• Citation:
  Silver Spring, MD: CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training, 2019 Apr; :1-11
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2019
• Performing Organization:
  CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training, Silver Spring, Maryland
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20090901
• Source Full Name:
  Exploring potential methods to evaluate impact and outcomes of construction safety and health research
• End Date:
  20240831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c4a1637df4c632bf9510b8aa95611db8a9e096c42a3f5c3f69518f9580b3d80f7bfb4bce3ca9b6d08f1bea40e7f007d7833be82183caed9d911453958d5134d1
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/215128/cdc_215128_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 294.11 KB ]