Safety climate,safety behavior,injury experience,and musculoskeletal disorders among Iranian manufacturing employees: A structural equation modeling study
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online March, 2025
Safety climate,safety behavior,injury experience,and musculoskeletal disorders among Iranian manufacturing employees: A structural equation modeling study
While safety climate and performance are extensively studied, few research studies have explored the relationship between safety climate and both retrospective and prospective indicators of safety performance.
Objective
This study aims to investigate the relationships between safety climate, safety behavior, musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) symptoms, and injury experience in manufacturing using structural equation modeling (SEM).
Methods
The study enrolled 409 employees from 15 manufacturing companies in Urmia, Iran in 2021. Data were collected using safety climate, safety behavior, and Nordic musculoskeletal disorders questionnaires. Occupational injury experiences from the past year were also recorded. SEM was used to analyze safety climate's relationships with performance variables.
Results
A positive relationship was observed between safety climate and safety behavior (r = 0.38, p < 0.01). Symptoms of MSD correlated significantly with safety climate (r = −0.12, p < 0.05) and injury experience (r = 0.10, p < 0.05). A significant association was found between safety climate and safety behavior factors in the first model (ß = 0.19, p = 0.001). The overall fit indices for the proposed model were acceptable. SEM confirmed a significant association between safety climate and safety behavior (ß = 0.20, p = 0.001). However, no relationship was found between safety climate/behavior and injury experience or MSD symptoms.
Conclusions
The safety climate influenced safety behavior but had no effect on employees’ self-reported injuries or MSD symptoms. Enhancing workplaces safety climate could prevent unsafe behaviors. This study recommends exploring the association between safety climate and safety performance indicators, considering potential mediators and moderators.
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