Person:
Sparer, Emily

Profile Picture

Email Address

AA Acceptance Date

Birth Date

Research Projects

Organizational Units

Job Title

Last Name

Sparer

First Name

Emily

Name

Sparer, Emily

Filters

20151

Settings

Author's Publications: search.filters.isAuthorOfPublication.65edf0d4-3250-4bcd-b9b1-547330f94f68

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Improving Health and Safety in Construction: The Intersection of Programs and Policies, Work Organization, and Safety Climate
    (2015-04-23) Sparer, Emily; Dennerlein, Jack T.; Herrick, Robert F.; Catalano, Paul J.
    Statement of Problem: Despite significant advancements in occupational health and safety in recent decades, injury rates in commercial construction remain high. New programs that address the complexity of the construction work environment are needed to keep workers healthy and safe. Methods: The first step of this dissertation was to explore associations between organizational programs and policies, as measured by a Contractor Safety Assessment Program (CSAP) score, and worker safety climate scores. Next, a safety communication and recognition program was developed and piloted. It was evaluated through a mixed methods approach in a randomized controlled trial. Primary outcome measures included safety climate, awareness, communication, and teambuilding. Additionally, the dynamic nature of the construction site was quantified through an analysis of the determinants of length of stay of construction workers on the worksite. Results: Correlations between CSAP scores and safety climate scores were weak at best, thus highlighting a gap in communication between management and workers. The B-SAFE program, a safety communication and recognition program was developed to meet this gap. It used data from safety inspection scores to provide feedback to workers on hazards and controls, and provided a reward when the site met a pre-determined safety inspection threshold (a measure that was fair, consistent, attainable and fair). In the final program design, the whole site was treated as the unit of analysis. B-SAFE led to many positive changes, including a statistically significant increase in safety climate scores of 2.29 points (p-value=0.012), when adjusting for time-varying parameters and worker characteristics. Workers at the B-SAFE sites noted increased levels of safety awareness, communication, and teamwork, when compared to control sites. The composition of workers on-site at any given month changed by approximately 50%, and the length of stay on-site was associated with race/ethnicity, union status, title, trade, and musculoskeletal pain (p-values<0.05). Conclusions: The construction work environment is dynamic, with over half of the population on-site changing each month. This makes applying and evaluating traditional worksite based interventions challenging. Interventions like B-SAFE that are developed to address the complexities can have a positive impact on site safety measures.