THE ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS IN WORKPLACE INJURIES

自1981年以来，职业伤害率变化缓慢，这表明进一步降低工伤率将需要新的方法来补充对技术环境和个人行为的理解。有人建议，更好地了解工作组织可能是下一步的重要步骤。社会网络分析提供了一种方法来量化工作组织的一部分，即影响对同事潜在有益资源的访问的关系。运用社会网络分析方法，探讨工作场所社会组织在工伤事故发生中的作用。这项研究将考察围绕工人的社会环境如何通过塑造对同事拥有的潜在降低风险的资源的获取来改变受伤风险。特别是，信息、物质援助和社会支持被假定为可以帮助工人避免受伤危险的资源。社会网络测量(社会计量学)被用来量化工作组的属性以及个人与群体成员的联系方式，而不是个人本身的属性。研究人群是受雇于一家长期精神病院的护士和护士助手，预期研究超过一年。员工的社交网络元素将通过三次自我管理的调查问卷来衡量，以说明社交网络的变化。员工出勤记录、人口统计数据和受伤数据将从管理记录中收集。受访者将被要求确定他/她在工作中寻求建议的同事，在需要时寻求身体帮助的人，以及他/她认为是朋友的同事；这些回答被用来构建描述工作场所社会结构的指数。将使用统计方法检验以下假设：个人不太可能受伤；(A)能够呼吁同事提供有关危险程序和安全做法的信息；(B)能够呼吁同事在危险环境中寻求身体援助；以及(C)与同事有社会联系。预期结果将使人们更好地了解伤害过程中的社会因素，也是一个跨越流行病学和社会学的学科界限的机会，以便拓宽研究和预防职业伤害的理论和方法的范围。

Occupational injury rates have changed slowly since 1981 suggesting that further reduction will require new approaches to supplement understanding about the technical environment and individual behaviors. It has been suggested that a better understanding of work organization may be an important next step. Social network analysis provides a means of quantifying one part of work organization - relationships that affect access to potentially beneficial resources of coworkers. Social network analytic methods will be used to explore the role of the workplace social organization in the incidence of job-related injuries. The study will examine how the social context surrounding the worker modifies the risk of injury by shaping access to the potentially risk-reducing resources possessed by coworkers. In particular, information, physical assistance and social support are hypothesized to be resources that can help workers avoid injury hazards. Social network measurements (sociometrics) are used to quantify properties of work groups and of the way individuals relate to group members rather than properties of individuals, per se. The study population is nurses and nurse aides employed in a long-term psychiatric facility studied prospectively over one year. The exposures, elements of the workers' social networks, will be measured by self-administered survey questionnaires given at three times in order to account for changes in the social network. Employee attendance records, demographic data, and injury data will be gathered from administrative records. Respondents will be asked to identify the coworkers he/she goes to for advice about work, who he/she asks for physical help when needed, and which coworkers he/she consider as friends; the responses are used to construct indices describing the workplace social structure. Statistical methods will be used to test hypotheses that individuals are less likely to be injured; who are a) able to call upon coworkers for information about hazardous procedures and safe practices, b) able to call upon coworkers for physical assistance in hazardous circumstances are less likely to be injured; and c) socially connected to their coworkers. Results are expected to provide a better understanding of social factors in the injury process and is also an opportunity to span the disciplinary boundaries of epidemiology and sociology in order to broaden the range of theoretical and methodological approaches used in the study and prevention of occupational injuries.