Health behaviour and safety in the construction sector

Workers' health behaviour includes habits or actions related to physical exercise, nutrition, smoking, and drug or alcohol consumption. Unhealthy behaviour, and especially alcohol consumption, has been considered a source of accidents and injuries among construction workers. However, unhealthy behaviour can also be seen as a result of the safety and risk conditions of these jobs. The purpose of this paper is to contrast the role of unhealthy behaviour as a source or as an outcome of safety and risk in the construction sector. Data was collected from 180 workers belonging to a Spanish construction company. Two path models representing these two hypotheses were tested. The model in which unhealthy behaviour is an antecedent of injuries did not fit the data (Chi square=73.798, df=3, p<0.001). Results support the hypothesis of unhealthy behaviour as a result of safety and risk factors through the mediating effect of the experience of tension (Chi-square=4.507, df=2, p=.212). This model not only corroborates the stressful nature of exposure to risk and the absence of supervisors' safety response, but it also makes it possible to consider injuries as a cause of tension that, in turn, affects the employees' unhealthy behaviour.