Journal of Health and Safety at Work

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Introduction: previous studies have shown approximately 90% of accidents in the workplace are due to unsafe behavior and human errors. Identifying predictors of unsafe behaviors would be unsafe in accidents prevention. The purpose of this study was to investigate personality characteristics, cognitive and organizational variables of line workers in an industrial company in bojnurd.

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Material and Method: The sample, in the main stage, consisted of 300 employees and in the validation stage 100 They were selected thought stratified random sampling. Firstly, participants were divided into two groups (safe and unsafe) using safety behavior scale. Next, each group was evaluated using the five-factor personality questionnaire, safety efficiency questionnaire, regulatory focus at work, safety climate, safety motivation and safety competency scales and also perceived work pressure questionnaire. In order to analyze the data, the discriminate analysis, the confirmatory factor analysis and the Pearson’s correlation coefficient were applied.

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Result: According to the result of the present study, unsafe behaviors of employees can be predicted by neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, consciousness, safety efficiency, regulatory focus and its dimensions, safety climate and its dimensions, safety motivation, safety competency and role overload variables.

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Conclusion: The results of this study showed the importance of safety competency, prevention focus, safety rules and procedures, safety efficiency and consciousness as predictors of unsafe work behaviors. Therefore, it is recommended to rely on these variables in the safety training courses and also in selecting people for high risk environments.

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Introduction: Nurses are under the influence of stressful factors and high work pressure, which increases nursing errors. One factor affecting nurses’ behavior and performance is the mental workload and cognitive failures. This research has investigated the mental workload and cognitive failures in two groups of nurses with and without unsafe behaviors during the outbreak of Covid-19.
Material and Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 312 nurses during the severe period of the Covid-19 outbreak through the public hospitals in Guilan province. Sampling was performed by selecting 104 nurses in the case group (with unsafe behavior) and 208 nurses in the control group (with safe behavior) using the full count method. The data collection tool is a three-part questionnaire including demographic information, the mental workload (NASA-TLX) questionnaire, and the occupational cognitive failures questionnaire. The incidence of needle stick as a consequence of unsafe behavior was used as a criterion.
Results: The results have shown that the workload in this research was 63.96±18.26, and the total score of cognitive failures was 59.1±13.9. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups of nurses with and without unsafe behaviors (P>0.05). Still, there was a significant correlation between the total mental workload score in all areas and the total score of cognitive failures in the group of nurses with and without unsafe behaviors (p=0.001, r=0.225).
Conclusion: According to the results, the perceived mental workload is high for the nursing job. Despite of positive correlation between mental workload and cognitive failures, it can be mentioned that there are two-way interactions through their dimensions. Therefore, the nursing job requires adopting optimal engineering and management strategies to reduce the workload.

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Introduction: Commercial trucking is one of the most challenging occupations, with long work hours, short rest periods, and substantial psychological pressures that contribute to fatigue and deterioration at work. Since regular physical activity is one of the pillars of healthy life and can improve physical and mental functioning, the present study investigated the relationship between physical activity and driver performance with occupational fatigue as a possible mediator.
Material and Methods: The study population was intercity commercial truck drivers in several cities of Razavi Khorasan Province. Using Green’s formula, we calculated a sample size of 140 participants. Data were collected with the Swedish Occupational Fatigue Inventory, the Sharkey Physical Activity Questionnaire, and the Driver Performance Questionnaire (unsafe behaviors). Statistical analyses included Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple regression analyses.
Results: Our results showed a significant positive correlation between occupational fatigue and driver performance problems (P=0.001). Both the correlation between physical activity and work fatigue, and the correlation between physical activity and driver performance were significant negative correlations (P=0.001). In addition, the indirect link between physical activity and driver performance via occupational fatigue was also significantly negative (P=0.001).
Conclusion: Based on our research results, enhanced physical activity contributes to enhanced driver performance (decreased unsafe behaviors) of commercial truck operators, directly and indirectly through decreased occupational fatigue. This study provides scientific evidence for the development of safety policy in the transportation industry of Iran.