New study: Health risk behaviors among construction workers
A profile across a variety of occupations
New research from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) suggests that several behaviors that contribute to higher health risks are more prevalent among construction workers than workers in other industries. This new study was recently published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Construction workers are in physically demanding jobs and exposed to many chemical and physical workplace hazards, with falls remaining the leading cause of work-related deaths in construction, accounting for about one-third of the total number of fatalities in this industry. Previous studies suggested that construction workers who exhibit certain health risk behaviors may be more likely to experience work-related injuries. NIOSH researchers were interested to explore how common health risk behaviors are among this workforce.