Evaluation of the effects of two alternative participatory ergonomics intervention strategies for construction companies

Abstract

To improve the use of ergonomics tools by construction workers, the effect of two guidance strategiesa face-to-face strategy (F2F) and an e-guidance strategy (EG)of a participatory ergonomics intervention was studied. Twelve construction companies were randomly assigned to the F2F group or the EG group. The primary outcome measure, the percentage of workers using ergonomics tools, and secondary outcome measureswork ability, physical functioning and limitations due to physical problemswere assessed using surveys at baseline and after 6 months. Additionally, a cost-benefit analysis was performed on company level. No differences in primary and secondary outcomes were found with the exception of the use of ergonomics tools to adjust working height (F2F þ1%; EG þ10%; p ¼ .001). Newly-implemented tools were used by 23% (F2F) and 42% (EG) of the workers (p ¼ .271). Costs were mainly determined by guidance costs (F2F group) or purchase costs (EG group). Practitioner Summary: Participatory strategies aim to stimulate behavioural change of stakeholders to increase the use of ergonomics tools. Two guidance strategiesface-to-face or e-mail interventionsamong construction companies were studied. Both guidance strategies led to an increase in the use of new ergonomics tools.

Exploring the structure and emerging trends of construction health management: a bibliometric review and content analysis

“…For instance, Jones et al (2019) investigated current approaches to managing occupational health in the construction industry and their limitations such as lower priority than safety, lack of ownership and poor health service provision. For the organization level, studies on "health program (T8)" are the most cited, accounting for 12.2% of the total, which focused on assessing the effectiveness of health programs, such as participatory ergonomics (Visser et al, 2019), nutrition training (Chung et al, 2019) and smoking cessation services (Asfar et al, 2019). Two health intervention perspectives were identified, namely behavior-driven health intervention and technology-driven health intervention.…”

The Role of Technical Support and Effective Communication to Successful Intervention Program on Palm Oil Mills

“…Most previous studies only investigated the implementation of intervention programs, and only a little addressed workers' behavioral response. However, there was no effect of the intervention program [11], [12]. Its effectiveness is influenced by various aspects, which explains why suggestions from different studies differ greatly.…”