Fall 2024 CivE709B Construction Safety and Human Factors PDF

Fall 2024, CivE709B Construction Safety and Human Factors 6. Impact of Stress on Construction Safety Gaang Lee, PhD. Assistant Professor Hole School of Construction...

Fall 2024, CivE709B Construction Safety and Human Factors 6. Impact of Stress on Construction Safety Gaang Lee, PhD. Assistant Professor Hole School of Construction Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering University of Alberta A U TTENTIVE  Stressed workers were 3.47 times more likely to experience accidents than unstressed workers (Hussen et al. 2020) Obviously, There is a Link b/w Stress & Safety and Health A U TTENTIVE 2  Outline Basics of Stress What it is Different stress responses What happens in your body under stress Stress status in construction Pathways to unsafe behavior and illnesses A U TTENTIVE 3  What is Stress? Definition: a transaction b/w an individual and an environment/stressor that is appraised in terms of relevance to well-being and in which personal resources are taxed or exceeded (Lazarus & Folkman 1984) - The definition is from Lazarus’s transactional model, which is most widely applied - It is a cognitive concept, which accompanies psychophysiological responses - Stressor can be anything (e.g., tasks, situations, physical, emotional, and cognitive) Great indicator of the quality of interactions between a person and the environment - Regardless of the type of demand from the environment/task - So, high heat strain, physical exertion/fatigue will accompany high stress - other examples - working with an uncomfortable peer - working under excessive noise, ergonomic risks Q: “Relevance to well-being”: Q: What has made you stressed out recently? A U TTENTIVE 4  Different Stress Responses Stress response is not homogenous (Lazarus & Folkman 1984) - Threat, Challenge, or No-stress, based on appraised capacity/resource and stressor’s demand - Primary appraisal: whether the stressor’s demand is significant and relevant to your well-being? - Secondary appraisal: whether the capacity and resource is enough to deal with the demand? - These appraisals can be done in both consciously and autonomically - Primary - - Secondary - Demand is significant Stressor and relevant Capacity is “Threat” Yes No to well-being? enough? a.k.a. Distress No Yes No stress or Irrelevant to “Challenge” wellbeing a.k.a. Eustress A U TTENTIVE 5  Challenge vs. Threat Their impacts are opposite - Challenge: improve work performance by enhancing self-efficacy, focus, and motivation (Folkman 1984) - Threat: “real route-cause” of detrimental consequences known as “stress-induced” (Tomaka et al. 1993) - Chronic lethargy, depression, selective attention, etc. Therefore, differentiating them and converting threats to challenges are critical in stress management in the field (Lee & Lee 2022) Challenge Threat A U TTENTIVE 6  Physiological Responses to Stress Sympathetic-Adreno-Medullary (SAM) axis Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis - Fast response - Slow following SAM - Sympathetic nervous - “Cortisol” release system activation (SNS) - Helps SAM for the “fight- - Adrenaline release and-flight mode” - Body becomes - Also, cortisol has an “fight-and-flight mode” indirect negative - The main mechanisms feedback to SAM of most wearable - Helps refill energy biosensor-based stress depleted during the detection “fight-and-flight” (e.g., heart activities, - Helps cognitive sweat gland activities, regulation of emotions skin temperature change) A U TTENTIVE Figure: (Carlton et al. 2021) 7  Difference in Response b/w Challenge & Threat Challenge - Typically, activates only SAM axis (w/o HPA axis involvement) - SAM → Reflected in peripheral systems, including heart, sweat gland, skins Threat - Typically, activates both SAM and HPA axes - Cortisol release! → related to detrimental outcomes.. A U TTENTIVE 8  Widely Applied Protocols to Elicit Threat Cold-pressor test (Allen et al. 1987) - Immersion of hand in cold water - Q. how relevant to the well-being? - A. obviously, direct threat to your body (well-being) Social evaluation (Dickerson and Kemeny 2004) - Doing a challenging task + being watched by others - Q. how relevant to the well-being? - A. it is not threat to your physical self, but it could be to your social self (social well-being). Uncontrollability about the situation (Dickerson and Kemeny 2004) - Q. how relevant to the well-being? - A. Potential threats to physical/social self? Threats: Physical threats / Social threats / Uncontrollability A U TTENTIVE 9  Outline Basics Basics of of Stress Stress What What itit is is Different Different stress stress responses responses What What happens happens in in your your body body under under stress stress Stress status Pathways in construction to unsafe behavior and illnesses Pathways to unsafe behavior and illnesses A U TTENTIVE 10  Construction: Stressful Industry Lots of stressors in daily workplaces - High workload, long working hours, and irregular work shifts - Harsh working environments (e.g., hot/cold weather, noise, explosives, etc.) Let’s have a group discussion! - Please recall the characteristics of the construction industry and its workplaces - Contract-based, fragmented, dynamic, low margin, never standardized, tough-guy culture, labor shortage, different types of projects, work outdoor, etc. - Then, list of stressors typical to construction workers with reasoning given the characteristics - Then, let’s share your ideas A U TTENTIVE 11  Construction: Stressful Industry Lots of stressors in daily workplaces - High workload, long working hours, and irregular work shifts - Harsh working environments (e.g., hot/cold weather, noise, explosives, chemical, etc.) - Pressure of timelines - Skill gaps (nowadays, due to the lack of seasoned workers and insufficient trainings) - Job insecurity due to contract-based nature, economic fluctuations and seasonal work - Work surrounded by safety hazards - Perception of low social connection/support from management - Lack of control (very top-down structure to ensure coordination among the fragmented nature) - Bullying, harassment from touch guys..? - Stay far away from family (e.g., infra/industrial projects in remote areas) - … A U TTENTIVE 12  Stress-related Statistics 16–50% of workers experienced substantial stress - 33%: Canada (64% wished their employers did more to support mental health) (Statistics Canada 2020) Lack of active reactions due to “tough-guy culture” - Substance use, denial and venting coping are common towards stress, anxiety, depression - 31% of those who died due to opioids worked in the construction industry (Government of Ontario 2019) - High suicide rate.. Suicide rate comparison among industries (US) (CDC) A U TTENTIVE 13  Outline Basics Basics of of Stress Stress What What itit is is Different Different stress stress responses responses What What happens happens in in your your body body under under stress stress Stress status Pathways in construction to unsafe behavior and illnesses Pathways to unsafe behavior and illnesses A U TTENTIVE 14  Question! Q. I said threat stress appraisal is the real root cause of detrimental outcomes, and so, HPA and Cortisol are bad, right? Partially true. First of all, HPA response helps us to properly react to threat. - Illness side: Only excessively high or repeated activation of HPA axis cause illnesses - Accident side: under HPA activation, selective attention increases the chance of accident Q: I said, HPA response helps react to threat, then, why does it induce accidents? A U TTENTIVE 15  Selective Attention from Activation of HPA (Schultebraucks et al. 2016) Selective attention toward the stressor → capacity to perceive surroundings↓ - Can function as an internal filter → Unsafe behavior A U TTENTIVE 16  What Happens from Excessive Activation of HPA (Yehuda 2002; Langer et al. 2022) Excessively high & repeated HPA activation → Over-sensitized HPA negative feedback - Basal cortisol level decreases - Lack of cognitive digest of negative emotions - Excessive negative emotion - if the stressor induces workers to act unsafely, unsafe behavior - also, mental illnesses, such as PTSD & Depression *PTSD: Post-traumatic stress disorder A U TTENTIVE 17  My Last Two Cents Stress is a key indicator in managing not just safety, but also, health, productivity, and satisfaction - Indication of overall quality of interactions w/ environments, regardless of the nature of the issue - Leading indicators of accidents / illness - Stress → unsafe behavior → accidents - Stress → prolonged → illnesses A U TTENTIVE 18