International Journal of Occupational Safety and

Ergonomics

ISSN: 1080-3548 (Print) 2376-9130 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tose20

Relationships between Certain Individual

Characteristics and Occupational accidents

Mohammad Javad Jafari, Abdullah Barkhordari, Davood Eskandari &

Yadollah Mehrabi

To cite this article: Mohammad Javad Jafari, Abdullah Barkhordari, Davood Eskandari & Yadollah
Mehrabi (2018): Relationships between Certain Individual Characteristics and Occupational
accidents, International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2018.1502232

Accepted author version posted online: 18

Jul 2018.

Submit your article to this journal

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=tose20
Publisher: Taylor & Francis & Central Institute for Labour Protection – National Research Institute (CIOP-
PIB)

Journal: International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergnomics

DOI: 10.1080/10803548.2018.1502232

Relationships between Certain Individual Characteristics and Occupational

accidents

Mohammad Javad Jafari 1, Abdullah Barkhordari2, Davood Eskandari* 3, Yadollah Mehrabi4

1- Department of Occupational Health, School of Public Health, Shahid Beheshti University of
Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
2- Department of Occupational Health, School of Public Health, Shahroud University of Medical
Sciences, Shahroud, Iran.
3- Department of Industrial Safety, School of Health, safety and environment, Shahid Beheshti
University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
4- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical
Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract:

Background: Work accidents and injuries are an occupational health and safety problem.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted for 404 front-line workers who were
randomly selected from the Arya Sasol Petrochemical Company in Bushehr, Iran, during
2016. A statistical analysis was performed using the test and the logistic regression
model with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) package.

Results: The overall occupational accident rate among the study subjects was found to be
9.2 %. Statistically significant differences were observed for the body mass index, level
of education, job experience, smoking habit, consumption of sedatives pills, and presence
of sleep disorders. Three factors had significant adjusted odds ratios: the body mass index
(odds ratio [OR]: 2.41), 95% CI (confidence interval) [1.16, 5.04], education level (OR:
0.25), 95% CI [0.07, 0.85]; and job experience (OR: 0.29), 95% CI [0.15, 0.57].

Conclusions: Preventive programs should be implemented for industrial workers,

especially young workers, workers who smoke, overweight workers, and workers with
psychosomatic disease.

1
Keywords: Occupational accidents, individual characteristics, Smoking habit,
Psychotropic drug consumption.

*Corresponding author. Email: eskandari.hse@gmail.com

2
1. Background

Accidents and injuries associated with work represent a serious occupational health
problem in public health today. Among the 264 million work-related accidents that
occur each year in the world, 350,000 are fatal [1]. Work-related injuries are
considered a major health problem in Iran. The rates of fatal and non-fatal
accidents are 0.95 in 100,000 and 253 in 100,000, respectively. Since occupational
accidents impose heavy costs on the economy of any country, it is important to
protect workers, which include a large sector of society [2, 3].
Accident causation theories provide some factors contributing to the occurrence of
accidents/injuries in the workplace. During recent years, a large number of
individual, work condition and organizational factors have been surveyed in
different studies [4-7]. Age and job experience are studied as the most common
factors among first-generation theorists. Young workers (˂ 25 years of age) are at
higher risk of nonfatal occupational accidents, while older workers are at higher
risk of fatal occupational accidents. Insufficient job experience (˂ 1 year) brings a
high risk of incident. For example, the risk of employees having an occupational
accident on their first day on the job can be even 50 times higher than that of
employees with one year of job experience. Ferguson and colleagues showed that
weak mental ability is strongly associated with injury as well as with poor work
performance [8]. Living habits such as alcohol consumption and smoking tobacco
have also been found to have a correlation with occupational injury [9, 10].
Gender is another individual factor causing work-related injuries. An analysis of
16 studies indicated that the risk of injury among females was 3.3 times lower than
that of males. The injuries among males were often more severe, as the fatality risk
was found to be 13 times higher for males than for females in nine studies [11, 12].
Chau and colleagues studied the relationships between certain individual

3
characteristics and occupational injuries in the construction industry. They
concluded that young age, sleep disorders, and smoking habits affected injury risk.
Young age and sleep disorders were common risk factors for some jobs [13]. The
knowledge of these risk factors presents possible opportunities for preventive
procedures and injury reduction measures, which go beyond traditional approaches
by considering the risks among different age groups.
Many other individual factors are expected to influence accidents in the workplace.
Individual factors such as body mass index, training, hearing and vision disorders,
monthly income, sedatives drug use, as well as sporting activities are among those
factors that have not been studied in detail. The present study aimed to assess the
relationships among the factors of age, body mass index, training, education, job
experience, sleep disorders, hearing disorders, vision disorders, smoking habits,
monthly income, sedatives drug use, sporting activities, shift work with
occupational injuries in petrochemical workers.

2. Methods

We conducted this study in 2016 on 450 frontline workers of the Arya Sasol
Petrochemical Company in Bushehr Iran and applied a stratified random sampling
technique to select the study participants. Of the 450 participants, 404 (89%)
completed and returned the standardized questionnaire, in which we asked the
participants for personal data, including their birth date, height, weight, work
experience (years in present job), education level (no formal education/formal
education), vocational safety training, smoking habit (non-smoker/smoker), regular
intake of sedatives pills (yes, no), regular physical activities, vision disorders,
hearing disorders, and sleep disorders (defined as being ˂ 6 hours sleep per day
and/or not sleeping well and/or regular intake of sleep-inducing drugs). In the
4
overall distribution of body mass index (BMI), we defined workers with BMIs
between 30.0 and 39.9 (obesity categories I and II) as obese. We defined vision
disorders as eyes problems that may require treatment beyond prescription lenses,
such as amblyopia, strabismus, color deficiency, nyctalopia, and photophobia. We
defined occupational injury as bodily damage resulting from work activity,
whatever its consequence, which resulted from an accident at work and required
sick leave of at least one day. To ensure an adequate number of occupational
injuries, we covered a two-year work period.
To assess the effects of various factors on the rates of incidents/accidents, we used
the independence test. Then, we calculated the adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and
95% confidence intervals using the logistic regression technique. We used the
SPSS version 18 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) to implement all the analyses
were implemented with the SPSS package.

3. Results
Among the study participants, we determined the overall occupational accident rate
to be 9.2%. All of workers were male, since they comprised the main occupational
groups at the frontline of this company. The study participants ranged in age from
23 years to 57 years, with a mean age of 34.9 (SD 7.9) years, and 29.7% were ˂ 30
years old. The study subjects’ BMI of 6.2% was ≥ 30; 72.3% of them had non-
academic education, 70.3% married, 34.2% worked ˂ 5 years, 16.8% were
smokers, 8.7% had sleep disorders, 2.7% had visual problems, 8.4% declared
regularly consuming sedatives pills, 57.2% had no physical activities, 50.5% were
working swing shift, and 5.9% had not participated in a safety training course.
Test was applied to reveal the relationship between various individual factors
and occupational accidents. Table 1 provides the accident rate according to
different factors. Statistically significant differences were observed among
5
different body mass index groups, level of education groups, job experience
groups, smoking habit groups, consumption of sedatives pills groups, and sleep
disorders groups. No significant differences were found between the occupational
injury rate and age, marital status, income level, hearing disorders, vision
disorders, physical activities, shift work, and safety training groups.

The odds ratios for the occurrence of occupational accidents without adjusting for
variables were assessed using logistic regression model (Table 2). The results
showed that BMI (p=0.003), education level (p = 0.046), job experience (p = 0.01),
and smoking habit (p = 0.007) had a significant correlation with the occurrence of
occupational accidents. The chance of occurrence of occupational accidents in the
obese range (BMI: 30-39.9) was 6.09 times higher than normal subjects (BMI-
18.5-24.9) in this model, without the effect of confounding factors. Also, the
lowest odds ratio was allocated to the education level group. According to the
results, non-academic workers have 2.68 times more occupational accidents than
those with academic educations.

Table 1

The adjusted odds ratio were calculated for significant variables (table 1),
including BMI, education level, work experience, and marital status, by modifying
different confounding factors in model 2. Table 3 indicates the estimated parameter
values of the final logistic regression model as well as the adjusted odds ratios for
the various individual factors. The smoking variable, which had a significant
relationship with the occurrence of occupational accidents in the previous model,
was found to be non-significant in this model with the modifying of confounding
factors. The results of the adjusted odds ratio identified obesity (OR:3.84), 95% CI
[1.77, 9.21] as a risk factor and academic education (OR:0.167), 95% CI [0.041,
0.691], job experience of over 5 years old (OR:0.043), 95% CI [0.011, 0.167] and
6
being single (OR: 0.93), 95% CI [0.022, 0.394] variables as protective factors in
the occurrence of occupational accidents with a statistical significance level.

4. Discussion

This study assessed the associations between certain individual factors and
occupational injuries in a petrochemical plant. It showed that the overall incidence
of injuries among workers was 9.2%. It also revealed that workers with a higher
body mass index, a nonacademic education, less experience in their job, a smoking
habit, sleep disorders; and sedatives pill consumption had a higher incidence of
accidents. The logistic regression analysis revealed that workers with a higher
body mass index, a nonacademic education, and less experience in a job were at an
increased risk of accidents.

Another finding was that workers with a BMI ˃30 had an increased rate of
occupational injury. Several studies revealed associations between BMI and
industrial injuries [14]. Overweight workers had a higher risk of falls, and they
more often required long-term sick leave. They also had difficulties when
performing tasks with a high ergonomic demand [4, 15].

The logistic regression analysis revealed that workers with a nonacademic

education were at an increased risk of accidents. One of the main reasons was that
these individuals had jobs that required a lot of exercise and physical effort.
Another reason was that they were generally less well prepared to learn safety
practices in the workplace or to follow safe working procedures [16-18].

The association between smoking and injury was significant; this difference was
not seen when adjustments were made for other factors in a logistic regression
model, however. This could be described by the interdependence of the smoking

7
habit, the use of sedatives pills, and the BMI. This result confirms the findings of
previous researchers [4, 17, 19].

Some studies suggested that new and inexpert workers were at an increased risk of
accidents [20-22]. In this study, results confirm that a lack of job experience was
associated with a higher occupational accident rate.

Harma and colleagues believe that sleep disorders can lead to fatigue and difficulty
in focusing on the work environment; as a result, they can increase the occurrence
of occupational accidents [23]. This study shows the same results. The finding has
been highlighted by some studies of truck drivers, railway employees, and
construction workers [13, 24, 25].

This study found that regular sedatives drug intake has a significant association
with occupational injuries. This was predictable because sedatives drugs impair
reflexes and slow reactions, leading to a higher accident rate. Moden and
colleagues associated sedatives drug consumption with a higher incidence of falls
and transportation accidents in all age groups and sexes [26]. In this study, no
significant relationship was found for safety training. This was also observed by
other authors, who considered that training could not prevent injuries when hazards
were common and safety procedures and practices were not followed [27].

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This study is part of a larger study conducted for a doctoral dissertation that was
approved by the Ethical Committee and was supported with a research grant for Ph.D.
dissertation in The National Petrochemical Company (NPC), Iran. The authors would like
to express their sincere gratitude to this center and all the participants for cooperating in
this study.

8
9
Table 1. Relations of Individual factors with Occupational Injury (N=404).

Subject (%) Injury (%) p-value

Factor
(N=404) (ntotal=37)
Age (Years)
˂ 29.9 120 (29.7) 12 (11.0)
30-39.9 172 (42.6) 15 (9.4)
40-49.9 86 (21.3) 8 (10.0) NS**
˃50 26 (6.4) 2 (8.3)
BMI*
18.5-24.9 147 (36.4) 7 (5.2)
25-29.9 232 (57.3) 24 (10.8) ˂0.05
30-39.9 25 (6.3) 6 (25)
Education
Academic 112 (27.7) 5 (4.8)
˂0.05
Non-Academic 292 (72.3) 32 (11.9)
Marital status
Single 101 (25.0) 9 (9.6)
Married 284 (70.3) 26 (10.0) NS
Widow or divorced 19 (4.7) 2 (11.1)
Job Experience
(years)
˂5 138 (34.2) 23 (18.0)
5-10 146 (36.1) 7 (5.2) ˂0.05
˃10 120 (29.7) 7 (6.4)
Income level
(USD)
˂ 300 138 (34.1) 12 (9.2)
300-600 163 (40.5) 17 (11.8) NS
600-1150 103 (25.4) 8 (9.4)
Smoking habit
Yes 68 (16.8) 12 (19.7)
˂0.05
No 336 (83.2) 25 (8.0)
Hearing disorder
Yes 21 (5.2) 3 (17.6) NS
No 383 (94.8) 34 (9.6)
Vision disorder
Yes 12 (3.0) 2 (16.7) NS
No 392 (97.0) 35 (9.7)
Taking pills
Yes 35 (8.7) 7 (22.6) ˂0.05
No 369 (91.3) 30 (8.8)
Sleep disorders
Yes 34 (8.4) 7 (20.6) ˂0.05

10
 No 370 (91.6) 30 (8.9)
Physical activities
Yes 173 (42.8) 12 (7.4) NS
No 231 (57.2) 25 (11.9)
Shift work
Yes 204 (50.5) 19 (10.2) NS
No 200 (49.5) 18 (9.7)
Safety training
Yes 380 (94.1) 34 (9.7) NS
No 24 (5.9) 3 (13.6)
* Body Mass Index
**
Not Significant

Table 2. Associations Between individual characterization and occupational Injuries (N=404):

crude Odds Ratios (OR) and 95% Confidence Interval (95% CI) Calculated with Logistic
Regression Method.
Factor Crude Odd Ratio 95%CI p-value
Lower limit Upper limit
Age (Years) 0.969
˂ 29.9 1.36 0.28 6.52 0.700
30-39.9 1.14 0.24 5.35 0.863
40-49.9 1.22 0.24 6.18 0.808
˃50 1.00
* 0.012
BMI
18.5-24.9 1.0
25-29.9 2.22 0.92 5.35 0.075
30-39.9 6.09 1.84 20.17 0.003
Education
Academic 1.00
Non-academic 2.68 1.01 7.09 0.046
Marital status
Single 0.99 0.47 2.08 0.987
Married 1.00
Job Experience
˂5 3.22 1.32 7.83 0.01
5-10 0.81 0.27 2.38 0.704
˃10 1.00
Income level (USD) 0.735

˂ 300 1.39 0.443 2.87 0.801

300-600 1.12 0.57 3.35 0.467
600-1150 1.00
Shift work
fixed 0.97 0.49 1.91 0.938
rotational 1.00
Smoking habit 2.80 1.32 5.94 0.007

11
 Hearing disorder 2.02 0.55 7.39 0.287
Vision disorder 1.85 9.39 8.81 0.436
Taking pills 2.50 0.95 6.60 0.063
Sleep disorders 2.66 1.06 6.60 0.035
Physical activities 0.59 0.28 1.21 0.154
Safety training 0.68 0.19 2.42 0.553
* Body Mass Index

Table 3. Associations Between individual characterization and occupational Injuries (N=404):

adjusted Odds Ratios (OR) and 95% Confidence Interval (95% CI) Calculated with Logistic
Regression Method.
95%CI p-value
Factor Adjusted Odd
Ratio Lower limit Upper limit
Age (Years) 0.884
˂ 29.9 0.723 0.079 6.580 0.773
30-39.9 0.545 0.077 3.870 0.544
40-49.9 0.478 0.060 3.820 0.486
˃50 1.000
BMI* 0.012
18.5-24.9 1.000
25-29.9 2.140 0.656 6.780 0.225
30-39.9 3.84 1.770 9.210 0.009
Education
Academic 1.167 0.041 0.691 0.014
Non-academic 1.000
Marital status
Single 0.93 0.022 0.394 0.001
Married 1.000
Job Experience
˂5 1.000 1.320 7.830 0.010
5-10 0.043 0.011 0.167 0.000
˃10 0.063 0.017 0.231 0.000
Income level (USD) 0.997
˂ 300 1.030 0.285 3.750 0.958
300-600 1.040 0.310 3.520 0.943
600-1150 1.000
Shift work
fix 0.566 0.235 1.360 0.204
Rotational 1.000
Smoking habit 2.120 0.806 5.610 0.127
Hearing disorder 1.500 0.316 7.180 0.607
Vision disorder 1.630 0.185 14.320 0.660
Taking pills 1.930 0.589 6.300 0.278
Sleep disorders 1.930 0.587 6.380 0.278

12
 Physical activities 0.470 0.179 1.230 0.125
Safety training 0.31 0.048 2.04 0.225
* Body Mass Index

References
1. Stellman JM. Encyclopaedia of occupational health and safety. Geneva: International Labour
Organization; 1998.
2. Mehrdad R, Seifmanesh S, Chavoshi F, et al. Epidemiology of occupational accidents in Iran
based on social security organization database. Iran Red Crescent Med J. 2014;16(1).
3. Warch Sl. Quantifying The Financial Impact Of Occupational Injuries And Illnesses, And The
Costs And Benefits Associated With An Ergonomic Risk Contorl Intervention Within The Uniprise
Business Segment Of Unitedhealth Group. Stout (CO): University of Wisconsin; 2002.
4. Gauchard GC, Chau N, Touron C, et al. Individual characteristics in occupational accidents due
to imbalance: a case-control study of the employees of a railway company. Ann Occup Environ Med.
2003;60(5):330-5.
5. Salminen S, Gyekye SA, Ojajärvi A. Individual and organizational factors of safe behaviour
among Ghanaian industrial workers. Engineering Management Research. 2013;2(1):98.
6. Oliver A, Cheyne A, Tomas JM, et al. The effects of organizational and individual factors on
occupational accidents. J Occup Organ Psychol. 2002;75(4):473-88.
7. Neal A, Griffin MA. A study of the lagged relationships among safety climate, safety motivation,
safety behavior, and accidents at the individual and group levels. Int J Appl Psychol. 2006;91(4):946.
8. Ferguson JC, McNally MS, Booth RF. Individual Characteristics as Predictors of Accidental
Injuries in Naval Personnel. Accid Anal Prev.1984;16(1):55-62.
9. Zwerling C, Sprince NL, Wallace RB, et al. Alcohol and occupational injuries among older
workers. Accid Anal Prev. 1996;28(3):371-6.
10. Dawson DA. Heavy drinking and the risk of occupational injury. Accid Anal Prev.
1994;26(5):655-65.
11. Salminen S. Have young workers more injuries than older ones? An international literature
review. J Safety Res. 2004;35(5):513-21.
12. Salminen S, Saari J, Saarela K, et al. Risk factors for women in serious occupational accidents.
Occup Health Safety (Austral NZ). 1992;8(4):341-7.
13. Chau N, Mur JM, Benamghar L, et al. Relationships between certain individual characteristics
and occupational injuries for various jobs in the construction industry: A case‐ control study. Am J Ind
Med . 2004;45(1):84-92.
14. Froom P, Melamed S, Kristal-Boneh E, et al. Industrial accidents are related to relative body
weight: the Israeli CORDIS study. Occup Environ Med. 1996;53(12):832-5.
15. Chau N, Bhattacherjee A, Kunar B, Group L. Relationship between job, lifestyle, age and
occupational injuries. Occup Med (Lond). 2009;59(2):114-9.
16. Alizadeh SS, Mortazavi SB, Sepehri MM. Analysis of Occupational Accident Fatalities and
Injuries Among Male Group in Iran Between 2008 and 2012. Iran Red Crescent Med J. 2015;17(10).
17. Bhattacherjee A, Chau N, Sierra CO, et al. Relationships of job and some individual
characteristics to occupational injuries in employed people: a community-based study. J Occup Health.
2003;45(6):382-91.
18. Rahmani A, Khadem M, Madreseh E, et al. Descriptive study of occupational accidents and their
causes among electricity distribution company workers at an eight-year period in Iran. Saf Health Work.
2013;4(3):160-5.
19. Chau N, Mur J-M, Benamghar L, Siegfried C, et al. Relationships between Some Individual
Characteristics and Occupational Accidents in the Construction Industry: A Case-Control Study on 880
Victims of Accidents Occurred during a Two-Year Period. J Occup Health.2002;44(3):131-9.

13
20. Salminen ST. Epidemiological analysis of serious occupational accidents in southern Finland.
Scand J Soc Med. 1994;22(3):225-7.
21. Chi C-F, Chang T-C, Ting H-I. Accident patterns and prevention measures for fatal occupational
falls in the construction industry. Appl Ergon. 2005;36(4):391-400.
22. Root N, Hoefer M. The First Work-Injury Data Available from New BLS Study. Monthly Lab
Rev. 1979;102:76.
23. Härmä M, Suvanto S, Popkin S, et al. A dose–response study of total sleep time and the ability to
maintain wakefulness. J Sleep Res. 1998;7(3):167-74.
24. Ulfberg J, Carter N, Edling C. Sleep-disordered breathing and occupational accidents. Scand J
Work Environ Health. 2000:237-42.
25. Stoohs RA, Guilleminault C, Itoi A, et al. Traffic accidents in commercial long-haul truck
drivers: the influence of sleep-disordered breathing and obesity. Sleep. 1994;17:619.
26. Modén B, Merlo J, Ohlsson H, et al. Psychotropic drugs and falling accidents among the elderly:
a nested case control study in the whole population of Scania. J Epidemiol Community Health.
2010;64(5):440-6.
27. Bhattacherjee A, Maiti J. New look into quantitative analysis of mine safety studies.
Transactions-Society For Mining Metallurgy And Exploration Incorporated. 2000;308:83-90.

14