Predictive factors for self-reported occupational injuries at 3 manufacturing plants

1. Predictive factors for self-reported occupational injuries at 3 manufacturing plants Kent J. Nielsen1 & Kim L. Mikkelsen2 1Department of Occupational Medicine, Herning Hospital, Herning, Denmark 2Division of Safety Research, National Institute of Occupational Health, Copenhagen, Denmark

2. Background • Many relationships between organizational factors and injury outcomes have been shown to exist • Seniority of the workforce • Good relations between management and workforce • Social support • With-in group communication • Work pressure • Active role of management in safety • Organizational involvement in safety • Safe behaviour • Safety climate (various definitions)

3. Background • However mostly in cross-sectional studies • Analytic problem: reverse temporality • Theoretical problem: Safety climate as a “snapshot” vs. up to 10 years reference period • Few prospective studies • Safety climate (perception of supervisory safety practices, Zohar 2000) • Individual and psychosocial work characteristics (Swaen 2003, 2004)

4. Objective of the study • To identify and compare the predictive utility of a measure of safety climate on retrospective and prospective self-reported injuries.

5. Measures • The Danish Safety Climate Questionnaire (DSCQ)* • Leadership factors • Immediate supervisor general leadership • Immediate supervisor safety leadership • Organizational factor • Safety Instructions • Worker Factors • Convenience violations • Safety oversights • Commitment to the workplace • Self-reported injuries within the last 12 months • 8 specific types of injuries (e.g. a cut or bruise) + “Other” • Summarized across the 9 types and then coded as “injury” or “no injury” *Mikkelsen & Nielsen (under preparation)

6. Design T0 T1 Data collection DSCQ(1) DSCQ(2) Selfreported injuries(1) Selfreported injuries(2) 1/9-02 1/9-03 1/9-04 Data Analysis DSCQ(1) Self-reported injuries(1) Self-reported injuries(2) Retrospective injuries Prospective injuries

7. Participants • All production workers at 3 Danish medium sized industrial manufacturing plants.

8. Results Association between safety climate dimensions and retrospective and prospective self-reported injuries Controlled for plant and age Significant associations in orange

9. Limitations • 12 months recall period for injuries • A recall period between 2 weeks and a maximum of 3 months, depending on the severity of the injury, is recommend to minimize underreporting (Harel et al., 1994; Landon et al., 1995) • Risk of safety climate changes in 12 month period between T0 and T1, that influences the occurrence of injuries • Solely based on self-reported data • Information bias • Common method bias • Level of analysis • Individual level vs group level

10. Conclusions • The present study has shown that a measure of 6 different safety climate dimensions was associated with retrospectively and prospectively self-reported injuries. • The strongest association was found with the prospective self-reported injuries where all 6 safety climate dimensions reached significance whereas retrospectively, the associations were weaker and only significant for 2 of the safety climate dimensions. • The stronger relationship with the prospective self-reported injuries supports the theoretical notion of safety climate as an antecedent of occupational injuries

11. The End