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Published on: August 8, 2019
Length of time spent working on a commercial construction site and the associations with worker characteristics
Emily H Sparer1, Cassandra A Okechukwu2, Justin Manjourides3
1Department Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Background:
Construction workers move frequently from jobsite to jobsite, yet little is documented about length of stay on-site and associations with worker characteristics.
Method:
Using cross-sectional data, we investigated associations between worker characteristics (including trade and musculoskeletal pain) and length of stay on-site (dichotomized as < 1 month, n = 554, and ≥ 1 month, n = 435).
Results:
Approximately, 56% of workers remained on the worksite for at least 1 month. Length of stay was significantly associated with workers' race/ethnicity, union status, title, trade, and musculoskeletal pain (P-values < 0.05). Trades associated with longer length of stay included pipefitters and plumbers. Trades associated with shorter length of stay included operators and piledrivers. Workers with single-location pain had 2.21 times (95%CI: 1.52, 3.19) the odds of being short-term versus long-term, adjusting for trade, title, and race/ethnicity.
Conclusion:
The length of stay and associated characteristics provide important insight into how workers come and go on construction sites and the methodological challenges associated with traditional intervention evaluations.
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