Combinations of Workplace Stressors and Work- Related Injuries

Consideration of factors associated with increased accident likelihood has tended to concentrate on the influence of one specific factor (for example, noise) and other influences are either not considered or are controlled for. The aim here was to examine the influence of combinations of stressors on the prevalence of workplace accidents using self-report measures of exposure, health and work outcomes. Logistic regression analyses were carried out, with 'work-related/non-work-related accident' as the dependent variable. The main predictors were combinations of physical agents (noise, fumes, hazardous substances) and temporal stressors (night and shift work, long working hours). Additional predictors - the job demand-control-support model (Karasek 1979; Johnson and Hall 1988) and home-work interface (HWI) were also investigated. Other measured predictors (i.e., age, sex and social class based on occupation) were included in all analyses. There was some evidence for an increased likelihood of work-related accidents in those exposed to combinations of stressors - increased likelihood was largely due to independent effects of stressors, particularly noise. Certain stressors were also associated with a decreased risk of having a work-related accident (i.e. unpredictable work hours). Job-demand-control-support did not have a major impact on predicting work-/nonwork-related accident likelihood. Prevalence of accidents at work largely reflected social class based on occupation - 'skilled manual workers' or 'partly skilled workers' were most likely to have an accident.