A survey on occupational accidents among construction industry workers in Yazd city: Applying Time Series 2006-2011
Halvani GH, MSc 1 , Jafarinodoushan R, MSc 2*, Mirmohammadi SJ, MD 3, Mehrparvar AH, MD 3
1. Faculty member, Dept. of� Occupational Health, School of Public Health, Shaheed Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. 2. Faculty member, Occupational Health Research Center, Shaheed Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. 3. Assistant prof., Occupational Health Research Center, Shaheed Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
Abstract:������������ �����������������������������������������������������Received: September 2011, Accepted: October 2011
Background: Millions of construction industry accidents occur in the world causing demages and injuries to workers and consequently economical losses every year. The aim of this study was to determine an estimator model for accidents among construction industry workers, in the years 2006 - 2011 for the first time, in Yazd city. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive study, the questionnaire included items asking about variables such as age, occupation, type of accident, injured organ and the outcome of the accident. Time Series Model was used in this study to estimate accidents among the Yazd construction workers up to 2011. Results: Fatality rate of workers who did not have insurance was more than those who had, which was statistically significant (p < 0.001). The greatest rate of accident was falling (48.58%) and the lowest was chocking (29%). The relationships of accident outcomes with type of occupation and also the injured part of body were statistically significant in the construction industry (p<0.001). After testing many models, time series model of quadratic form was the closest model to the trend of data. Conclusions: This model estimation shows that if the situation is the same as now in 2011 the accident cases will be more than 300 per year in 2012 and later. So this model is recommended to make changes in the trend for preventing the accidents in the future. |
Keywords: Accidents, Time Series Analysis, Construction Workers, Yazd City.
Introduction
Eventhough modern life has brought more comfort and convenience for the communities, it has also caused hazards and accidents in human life. Millions of occupational accidents occurring annually impose damages and economical losses to societies [1]. Accidents have been rendered as one of the most important crippling factors contributing to disabilities and life-threatening situations in the developed and developing countries [2]. An accident is defined as an inadvertent happening occasionally being damaging and detrimental which prevents the normal continuation, progress, or[*] performance �of a task or activity. It is most often induced by unsafe acts or conditions or a combination of the two. The occurrence of numerous catastrophic events in recent decades have demonstrated that the consequences resulting from ignorance of safety principles and reaching of unwanted energies to damageable or fragile elements and materials can lead to a threat towards the human�s economical, social, and political elements [3].
Also, occupational accidents exert a considerable effect on the public health. A study revealed that about 120 million accidents occurred in 1993 leading to 210000 deaths (500 deaths per day) at their workplace. Studies in the following years also demonstrated that this number was increased in 1994 afterwards. Furthermore, 17 million working days were lost in England due to accidents in 1997 [4]. In our country, high amounts of money are annually devoted to compensating for payments of illness bouts of employees when they are off work or for work place disability payments. This imposes many damages to the active manpower of our society [1]. The building industry is one of the most hazardous fields around the world [5]. Building activities is considered as one of the most dangerous jobs in Hong Kong. The occurrence of various building accidents is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in this country [6, 7]. In addition to job related accidents, the building workers are faced with pathogens as asbestos, sillies, fumes, noise pollution, and other endangering factors in their work milieu. Yet, most of these workers live in poor hygienic conditions and inappropriate conveniences [8,9]. The age range curve shows that the age group of 20-29 years have suffered from most damages.
Another study carried out in Rafsanjan in south East of Iran on construction workers showed that most of the injured workers were employed in the welding section, and had a work experience of less than five years. The causes of accidents were mostly carelessness and lack of the use of safety appliances [10].
A study by Halvani reported the accidents to be the most among the workers with less than one year of experience and the least among the workers with more than 20 years of experience [11]. In the study by Colak, carelessness and lack of use of a suitable protection accounted for the first and second cause of occurrence of accidents, respectively [12]. Many research projects have been carried out on the occupational accidents in which factors contributing to the accidents have been determined. Among these factors are: type of accident [13-17], cause of damage [15,18-21], source of accident [11,22], month of accident [16], worker�s experience [12,18] and worker�s age [12,13,16,23]. The present study applied all these factors in the Time Series Model to estimate the related variables. Due to the fact that %9-12 of the workers in our country are busy in this section and few epidemiological studies have been carried out on this subject, the present study made an attempt to manage the building accidents process efficiently via studying the population as well as some factors such as time of accident, cause of accident, and consequences of accidents. Since estimating the distribution of accidents and determining their model of occurrence are effective factors for planning and prevention of accidents in future, this study used the Time Series Model for the first time to study accidents. The purpose of this research was to determine a predictor model for accidents of construction industry until 2011, for the first time, in Yazd city.
Materials and Methods
This was a descriptive modeling study in which all the construction workers sustaining occupational accidents during 2002-2006 were included. Information about accidents was recorded in the Office for Work and Social Affairs in Yazd. The population under study included 247 construction workers sustaining occupational accidents. The investigation of accidents was carried out by Yazd Work Inspection Office. The total number of workers in this province was about 12000. The required data were collected on the basis of research purposes using a checklist. The list of variables in the study included date of accident, time of accident, work shift, age, occupation, working experience, educational level, insurance status, marital status, the consequence of the accident, the hurt organ, type of accident, and cause of accident. The data were analyzed using �Minitab� and descriptive statistics, Chi-square, Time Series, Trend analysis were used where appropriate. The Time Series Model was used in this study to estimate accidents among the Yazd construction workers up to 2011. The method of data fitting and curving, especially for annual data, was used to fit a simple function as the polynomial curve (linear, degree one, degree two �) in the form of Gompers curve or logistic curve as the following:
Gompers curve: