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STUDY PROTOCOL article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1464797

Preventing Occupational Injuries in the Informal Construction Industry: A Study Protocol for the Development of a Safety Education Intervention for Bricklayers and Carpenters in Osun State, Nigeria

Provisionally accepted
Temitope O. Ojo Temitope O. Ojo 1*Adedeji A. Onayade Adedeji A. Onayade 1Nisha Naicker Nisha Naicker 2,3
  • 1 Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Nigeria
  • 2 Epidemiology and Surveillance, National Institute for Occupational Health, National Health Laboratory Services, Johannesburg, South Africa
  • 3 Division of Occupational Health, School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Occupational injuries are a growing public health problem. Approximately 1000 workers die daily from occupational injuries globally. Artisans working in the informal sector of the construction industry in many low/middle income countries like Nigeria have a higher injury predisposition. This study will assess the determinants of occupational injuries and design a safety intervention for informal sector artisans in the Nigerian construction industry.Methods: A sequential mixed-methods design will be employed to study 840 bricklayers and carpenters (420 per artisan group) in Osun State, Nigeria. Quantitative data will be collected first while qualitative data will be collected thereafter. Thirdly, a modified Delphi-technique will be employed to co-design a safety education intervention.For the quantitative study, artisans will be recruited via multi-stage sampling and a semistructured questionnaire will be administered to obtain information on artisans' sociodemographics, work-patterns and occupational injuries. A multivariable regression model will be used to determine the association between injury occurrence and independent variables.Twelve to sixteen focus group discussion (FGD) sessions will be conducted for artisans to obtain group perspectives about injuries and preferred safety training topics. From the FGD and quantitative study findings, a list of items for the safety training module will be compiled for the modified-Delphi process. Thereafter, the content validation index (CVI) will be derived and items with CVI of ≥0.80 will be included in the final safety training module.This paper describes the process required to assess the determinants of occupational injuries among artisans in the informal sector of the construction industry in Nigeria and further proposes the design of a context-relevant safety training intervention. The information from this study will be essential in promoting safe working environments for construction artisans.

    Keywords: Occupational Injuries, Nigerian artisans, Safety intervention, Construction artisans Occupational Injuries, Construction artisans

    Received: 15 Jul 2024; Accepted: 30 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ojo, Onayade and Naicker. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Temitope O. Ojo, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Nigeria

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.