Translation Research in Occupational Health and Safety Settings: Common Ground and Future Directions

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cunningham, Thomas R. ; Guerin, Rebecca J. ; Schulte, Paul A. ; Tinc PJ
• Description:
  Introduction: The research arm of the occupational safety and health (OSH) field has historically focused on the etiologic end of the research continuum rather than the workplace adoption and impact end. There has been a call to increase efforts to investigate factors that limit or enhance transfer, adoption, and sustained use of OSH risk information, interventions, and technology (collectively referred to as innovations); i.e. there has been a call for greater efforts in the far-reaching field of Translation Research for OSH (NAS, 2009). A central idea behind Translation Research for OSH is that as we improve our understanding of these limiting and enhancing factors at the individual worker, organizational, and societal level, we increase the likelihood that OSH research outputs lead to improvements in workers' safety, health, and wellbeing. Topic areas such as occupational hearing loss, lead toxicity, and occupational stress are only three examples of persistent OSH issues that would benefit from greater work on the adoption and impact end of the spectrum. In order to meaningfully decrease OSH injury, illness, and fatality rates related to these and other issues, it is imperative that innovations are not only developed, but widely adopted and sustained. Across many fields of clinical medicine and public health research, the science of effective implementation of evidence-based interventions/programs lags behind the science related to developing the programs themselves (Fixsen et al., 2005). Such is the case in OSH as well, as there is some good evidence for OSH interventions' effectiveness (Ruotsalainen et al., 2006), but relatively few examples of how or if OSH innovations have been integrated into widespread practice. For example, according to Lucas et al. (2014), only 17% of fishing safety research had made it to the workplace adoption phase. Similar results were found in a study conducted by Tinc et al. (2018a). A 2009 National Academies of Science report stated "much remains to be learned about how to improve the likelihood that research translation efforts will positively impact worksites... [and] ... continued contribution by NIOSH to research on improving the effectiveness of translation efforts will ensure consideration of the dynamics that characterize occupational safety and health" (NAS, 2009). Similar calls for greater emphasis on translation research for OSH can be found in several more recent NIOSH program reviews (NIOSH, 2018). Several OSH researchers have recognized the specific need for improved research to encourage the adoption of relevant and effective occupational safety and health (OSH) innovations (Dugan and Punnett, 2017, Guerin et al., 2019, Lucas et al., 2014, Tinc et al., 2018a), and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has recognized these calls and responded with a Framework for Translation Research in OSH (Schulte et al., 2017). The increasing emphasis on Translation Research for OSH is much needed, and is already leading to meaningful impacts (Lucas et al., 2014, Sorensen et al., 2017). However, the OSH community has been somewhat late to embrace translation research activities compared to other fields, as those working in clinical medicine and public health have been spreading and scaling evidence-based innovations for many years. This lag can be both a challenge and an opportunity for OSH researchers, as frameworks developed for clinical medicine, then for public health in general, can now be adapted for use in OSH contexts, thus reducing the burden on OSH researchers to start from the beginning. While there continues to be a need for establishing the evidence base for OSH interventions to address a myriad of hazards across multiple sectors, wider and more effective implementation of efficacious and effective OSH innovations is a critical next step (or perhaps leap). Despite its instructional value for developing research strategies to improve translation efforts for OSH contexts, the wealth of information derived from other disciplines can be both confusing and overwhelming to apply in this setting. This paper aims to open the discussion on and move forward in OSH translation research by: (1) disentangling terminology related to translation research, (2) examining pre-existing and related fields of research within clinical medicine and public health contexts, (3) considering the unique challenges to achieving success in translation within OSH settings, and (4) providing suggested next steps for the OSH research community. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Health Promotion Occupational Health Public Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Translation Research Dissemination Health Communications Implementation Science Information Dissemination Occupational Safety And Health Public Health Safety Research Translational Research
• ISSN:
  0022-4375
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  New York ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSI - Division of Science Integration
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  161-167
• Volume:
  74
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20060546
• Citation:
  J Safety Res 2020 Sep; 74:161-167
• Contact Point Address:
  Thomas R. Cunningham, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Division of Science Integration, United States
• Email:
  TCunningham@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2020
• NORA Priority Area:
  Public Safety ; Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Performing Organization:
  Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20150901
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Safety Research
• End Date:
  20190831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c335dc9dbd29d2525cd6937c289b6de81e6087700dee232995955f3cdd7aa329f8f1d4f5ff0ddd9accdff1edf41fe5c76d44af5749c7eb61b2506f472cf6ec4a
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/224413/cdc_224413_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 320.48 KB ]