THE ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS IN WORKPLACE INJURIES

职业伤害率自1981年以来变化缓慢，这表明进一步降低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，更好地理解工作组织可能是重要的下一步。社会网络分析提供了一种量化工作组织的一部分的方法——影响同事获取潜在有益资源的关系。社会网络分析方法将用于探讨工作场所社会组织在工伤发生率中的作用。该研究将考察员工周围的社会环境如何通过塑造同事拥有的潜在风险降低资源来改变受伤风险。特别是，信息、物理援助和社会支持被假设为可以帮助工人避免伤害危险的资源。社会网络测量（社会计量学）用于量化工作组的属性以及个人与小组成员的关系，而不是个人本身的属性。研究对象是在长期精神病院工作的护士和护工，对其进行了为期一年的前瞻性研究。为了说明社会网络的变化，工人社会网络的要素暴露将通过三次自我管理的调查问卷来衡量。员工出勤记录、人口统计数据和伤害数据将从行政记录中收集。受访者将被要求指出他/她会向哪些同事寻求工作建议，在需要时向哪些同事寻求身体帮助，以及哪些同事被他/她视为朋友；这些回答被用来构建描述工作场所社会结构的指数。统计方法将用于检验个体受伤可能性较小的假设；他们a)能够要求同事提供有关危险程序和安全操作的信息，b)能够在危险情况下要求同事提供物理帮助，从而减少受伤的可能性；c)与同事的社交关系密切。研究结果有望更好地理解伤害过程中的社会因素，也为跨越流行病学和社会学的学科界限提供了机会，以扩大用于研究和预防职业伤害的理论和方法方法的范围。

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.