Yeremia Rante Ada', Sumardiyono, Bachtiar Chahyadhi, Reni Wijayanti, Farhana Syahrotun Nisa Suratna, Maria Paskanita Widjanarti, Rachmawati Prihantina Fauzi

Maintaining Occupational Health: An Analysis of Fatigue and Safety Compliance in Construction Workers

Introduction

Maintaining occupational health: an analysis of fatigue and safety compliance in construction workers. Explore occupational health, fatigue, and safety compliance in construction workers. Uncover complex relationships between education level, work fatigue, and safety adherence.

Abstract

Background: Safety compliance is a critical component in preventing workplace accidents and ensuring employee well-being. Various factors may influence workers’ adherence to safety protocols, including individual characteristics such as education level and fatigue. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between education level, work fatigue, and safety compliance.Subjects and Method: This cross-sectional study involved 137 respondents, categorized by fatigue status. The dependent variable was safety compliance. Independent variables included work fatigue and education level. Instruments included the Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS) questionnaire for fatigue. Data analysis utilized the chi-square test for fatigue and education levels. Results: The proportion of workers who comply with safety procedures varies across education levels, but the differences are not statistically significant. In contrast, workers with higher levels of fatigue were significantly more compliant with safety practices than those with lower fatigue..Conclusion: These findings highlight the complexity of behavioral responses to workplace demands and the need for targeted interventions.

Review

This study tackles a highly relevant and critical area within occupational health, focusing on the intricate relationship between individual factors like education and fatigue, and their impact on safety compliance among construction workers. Given the inherent risks in the construction industry, understanding these dynamics is paramount for developing effective accident prevention strategies and promoting employee well-being. The authors appropriately highlight safety compliance as a crucial component, and their aim to examine the influence of education level and work fatigue using a cross-sectional design with 137 respondents is a commendable first step in addressing this complex issue. However, the findings present some intriguing, and indeed counter-intuitive, results that warrant further discussion. While the non-significant effect of education level on safety compliance is noted, the discovery that "workers with higher levels of fatigue were significantly more compliant with safety practices than those with lower fatigue" stands in stark contrast to much of the existing literature, which typically links fatigue with increased errors and reduced vigilance. This unexpected outcome raises questions regarding potential confounding factors, the specific nature or measurement of fatigue (e.g., types of fatigue, self-reporting biases where highly fatigued individuals might *report* higher compliance due to heightened awareness or fear of consequences), or the methodology employed in categorizing fatigue status and its subsequent analysis using a chi-square test. Deeper statistical exploration or a more granular understanding of the "fatigue status" categorization might shed more light on this surprising finding. Despite the perplexing result concerning fatigue, the study effectively underlines the "complexity of behavioral responses to workplace demands," as articulated in its conclusion. This research serves as an important prompt for further investigation into the nuanced mechanisms through which fatigue might influence safety behaviors in specific high-risk environments. Future studies would benefit from incorporating longitudinal designs to explore causality, employing more detailed measures of fatigue (e.g., objective indicators, different facets of fatigue), and utilizing advanced statistical methods to account for potential confounders. Ultimately, this work contributes to the discourse on occupational safety by presenting findings that challenge conventional wisdom and highlight areas requiring more in-depth empirical and theoretical exploration.

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