Impact of Age on the Strength of Experience and Education Role in Fatal Injuries Prevention in Iranian Construction Craft Workers

Abstract

Over the past two decades, the construction industry has encountered the challenge of rapid aging of craft workers in many countries. In addition, the shortage of skilled workers that has emerged over the past three decades in various countries have forced project managers, at least in some regions or periods of time, to execute projects with less skilled or experienced workers. There has been increasing attention from researchers and practitioners on fatal injury preventive solutions. However, the industry still suffers from a relatively high and substantial disproportion in fatal injuries compared to other industries. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by elucidating the fatality rate fluctuations in the different age groups of craft workers and empirically examining the interaction of adverse impact of higher age and preventive influence of higher educational attainment and skill and experience level of craft workers on fatal injuries in construction projects. A total of 6,326 accidents were analyzed, which occurred in construction projects in the province of Tehran, Iran between 2011 and 2017. The study found the higher experience and educational attainment of craft workers significantly mitigates the severity of accidents from fatal injuries to nonfatal ones in young and middle-aged craft workers. However, the effectiveness of both factors decreases gradually when craft workers get older. Both factors’ strength will be dominated by the adverse impact of age on the older workers, which results in a high fatality rate between the age of 65 and 75.