Cell Phone Ownership and Cellular Text/Email Capabilities Among Temporary and Payroll Construction Workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Baniak M ; Caban-Martinez, Alberto J. ; Chalmers JJ ; Jordan MM ; Moore KJ ; Santiago KM
• Description:
  Background: With high rates of temporary workers and a transient worker population, the U.S. construction workforce presents a challenge for long-term research and outreach activities. Increasing availability of affordable cell phone technologies may provide an opportunity for research follow-up among construction workers once they leave the worksite. Using pilot study survey data we characterize and examine the association of cell phone technology ownership and cellular text/email services among a non-probabilistic sample of payroll and temporary construction workers. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used to administer a one-time paper-based anonymous survey to construction workers working at construction sites in Florida, USA. The survey featured questions on sociodemographic characteristics, occupational history, cell phone technology ownership, and cellular text/email services capabilities. Results: Among the 223 construction worker survey respondents, 31.4% identified as temporary workers and 68.6% were on payroll and 87.4% owned a cell phone. Construction workers who own a cell phone had greater than a high school education (28.9% vs. 25.0%; p = 0.019), made >$30,000/year (27.1% vs. 14.8%; p = 0.011), had same cell phone number for >1 year (74.4% vs. 40.7%; p = 0.001), and were employed as a payroll worker (71.0% vs. 50.0%; p = 0.037). Temporary construction workers compared to their payroll counterparts were significantly less likely to have email services on their cell phone [unadjusted-odds ratio 0.41 (95% CI: 0.17-0.97)]. Conclusion: Cell phone ownership and smartphone-enabled technologies such as email/texting capabilities are higher among payroll than temporary construction workers. Further research on frequency of cell phone use and types of email/texting services used by construction workers are needed. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Communication Construction Industry Demography Occupational Health Safety Surveys And Questionnaires
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Construction Workers Cell Phones Communication Research Communication Systems Construction Construction Workers Cross Sectional Studies Demographic Characteristics Questionnaires Social Media Socioeconomics Technology Temporary Workers Vulnerable Worker Population Workers

  More +
• ISSN:
  2296-2565
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Florida ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  42
• Volume:
  8
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20059259
• Citation:
  Front Public Health 2020 Mar; 8:42
• Contact Point Address:
  Alberto J. Caban-Martinez, Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL, United States
• Email:
  acaban@med.miami.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2020
• Performing Organization:
  Florida State Department of Health, Tallahassee
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20150701
• Source Full Name:
  Frontiers in Public Health
• End Date:
  20210630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:14bd6e4e0878084ff248243f2289406c1d9fd45aa1ddd53f3565f6589c8d1d15cc002cca199831b4e37d9f912a171126a5b01e5a16547fc8946286109276a3e9
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/223539/cdc_223539_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 238.29 KB ]