Factors Affecting Preventive Behaviors for Safety and Health at Work during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Thai Construction Workers

Abstract

Occupational health and safety risks are of major concerns in construction industry. The COVID-19 outbreak provides an additional risk that could drastically affect the safety risks and health of construction workers. Understanding the factors that affect the health and safety of construction workers is significant in reducing risky behaviors and enhancing worker preventive behaviors. Via integrating the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) and the extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), this study investigates the factors that affect preventive behaviors among construction workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangkok, Thailand. A total of 610 Thai construction workers participated in an online questionnaire survey, which consisted of nine factors with 43 questions. Structure equation modeling (SEM) was adopted to analyze the causal relationships among the latent variable. The SEM results indicated that organizational support and knowledge about COVID-19 had significant (p < 0.0001) direct influences on perceived vulnerability and perceived severity. In addition, perceived vulnerability and perceived severity had significant direct influences on perceived behavioral control. Perceived severity had significant (p < 0.0001) direct influence on attitude towards behavior. Moreover, perceived behavioral control and attitude towards behavior had significant (p < 0.0001) direct influence on intention to follow the preventive measure. Furthermore, the intention to follow the preventive measure had significant (p < 0.0001) direct influences on the COVID-19 preventive behavior. Of note, organizational support and knowledge about COVID-19 had significant (p < 0.0001) indirect influence on COVID-19 preventive behavior. The findings of this study may assist project managers/supervisors and authorities in the construction industry in understanding the challenge during COVID-19 and possible similar epidemics in the future. In addition, conducting effective strategies would improve construction industry safety and promote preventive behaviors among construction workers.