Meta-analysis of studies examining long-term construction injury rates

This 2012 meta-analysis evaluated global construction injuries and fatalities.

55 studies were included, having at least two measurements of injuries with a medium to long-term period (eg longitudinal).

Data is a little dated compared to some other research, since it included studies from 1987 – 2010.

Key findings:

· “All injuries significantly decreased between the first and the second measurement, with fatal injuries decreasing by 35% and non-fatal ones by 33% in workers/year and by 22% in worked hours/year”

· “analysis showed a significant linear relationship between time and risk reduction for fatal injuries (r = 0.63; P < 0.001; a 6% reduction per year); trend reduction for non-fatal injuries was not related to the time taken between the measurements”

· “Fatal injuries have a reduction trend that depends on large interventions, whereas non-fatal injuries are more prone to episodic changes”

· Reduction in fatal injuries “did not depend on the impact of episodic, immediate or short-lived phenomena (phasic trend) but was more influenced by continuous and prolonged effects (tonic trend)”

· “results indicate that data relating to fatal injuries show a progressive and constant decrease over a medium- to long-term period”

· Expectedly, progress differed around the global – whereas fatalities decreased in many regions, it increased in other areas (eg China)

· They found that expressing injury rates by hours worked (eg 200k hours) was a better proxy compared to workers per year

They suggest based on these findings that:

· “fatal injuries showed a progressive reduction by 6% per year, and maybe they need a medium- to long-term period to reach a more significant reduction (tonic trend)

· “To reduce the number of nonfatal injuries, daily constant monitoring as well as single major interventions may be necessary”

Ref: Sancini, A., Fioravanti, M., Andreozzi, G., Giorgio, V. D., Tomei, G., Tomei, F., & Ciarrocca, M. (2012). Meta-analysis of studies examining long-term construction injury rates. Occupational medicine, 62(5), 356-361.