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Bradley A. Evanoff, MD, MPH
Washington University
St. Louis, MO
Ph: (314) 454-8638
Email: bevanoff@im.wustl.edu
Abstract:
Falls are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the construction trades despite considerable knowledge of risk factors and prevention strategies. Though construction apprentices receive training in fall prevention, it is not known how effectively this training changes knowledge, attitudes, and safety behaviors- even when effective, safety behaviors learning in training may not persist at the jobsite. The overall goal of this proposal is to evaluate the effectiveness of fall protection training methods among apprentice carpenters. Our proposal has three specific aims: 1. Conduct a comprehensive needs assessment including a careful assessment of the content and process of the current fall protection training. 2. Develop and implement changes in fall protection training based on the needs assessment. 3. Evaluate the effectiveness of the modified training. The project will follow the conceptual framework described by NIOSH for evaluation of strategies to prevent work injuries, moving through organizational and development phases prior to intervention, collection of outcome measures, analyses, and reporting. We will collect both quantitative and qualitative data to assess the effectiveness of current fall protection training and gaps in current training prior to planning our curricular changes. Baseline and follow-up measures will include three major types of data: questionnaires of apprentices, observations of work behaviors, and focus groups. The primary site of the proposed work will be the St. Louis Carpenters' Joint Apprenticeship Program for Greater St. Louis and Vicinity. This four-year training program has 2400 actively enrolled apprentice carpenters in a program jointly operated by a building contractors association and the Carpenters District Council (CDC) of Greater St. Louis and Vicinity, the nation's largest unionized residential carpenter workforce in a single geographic area.
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