Physical and Psychosocial Correlates of Occupational Physical Injury in the Global Construction Industry: A Scoping Review

This recent scoping review evaluated 77 construction studies covering various geographical regions on the physical and psychosocial correlates of physical injury.

They stratified the correlates into three domains:

1.     workplace physical environment (eg, exposure to physical hazards, PPE, company size & more)

2.      workplace culture (eg, psychosocial stressors, gender-related barriers, migrant and ethnic disparities, educational background)

3.     physical wellbeing, health and aging (eg, age, obesity, sleep quality, marital stats, and physical health status)

WAY too much to cover, so a few extracts:

·        “workers from social minority groups (eg, women, ethnic and migrant workers) of young (<25 years old) or older ages (45-55 years old) employed in smaller construction companies are vulnerable to increased injury risk and exposure to physical and psychosocial hazards in the workplace”

·        Inconsistent findings or small sample sizes reported for marital status, obesity and education on occupational health and injury

·        No surprises – the physical environment is a critical determinant in physical injury

·        “Hazard exposure and mitigation strategies are largely absent in many construction settings globally as the industry is growing rapidly in many developing countries”

· “age, obesity, and sleep quality are individual-level characteristics that can contribute to increased risk for work-related injuries … Workers with higher body mass may be at risk for injury due to increased stress on their muscles and joints”

· “Obesity and poor nutrition has also been associated with increased risk for chronic diseases commonly reported by construction workers, including osteoarthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and cardiovascular disease”

·        “high job demands, low work autonomy, and poor supervisor and colleague support was associated with reduced work ability and increased risk for physical injury”

·        Conversely, “a positive psychosocial work environment improved job satisfaction and was protective against physical injury”

·        “Women experience additional hazards that result in gender discrimination in work allocation, wage distribution, work-family conflict, and workplace support … Work-family conflict is of particular concern as women often occupy the primary child-rearing role for their family”

·        “Studies have shown that gendered segregation of work also affects men as they are overrepresented in higher risk construction activities reinforcing institutionalized hypermasculinized behaviors (eg, toughness, stoicism, fearlessness, and self-reliance) and occupational pressures to perform that may pre-dispose them to increased risk for injury”

· “Based on our findings, there may be a “triple jeopardy” of injury risk considering membership as an ethnic minority, a gender minority, and poor income status as a vulnerable working group”

· “Injury prevention begins with adopting healthy workplace coping behavior must be practiced at and between individual, family, workplace, and industry”

· “Employers should consider the impacts of work scheduling, job design, work family support, and their ability to engage in healthy behaviors”