Dataset Information

Shifting Beliefs about Suicide: Pre-Post Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Program for Workers in the Construction Industry.

ABSTRACT: Suicide is a significant health problem that is known to disproportionately affect those employed in manual occupations, including construction workers and tradespeople. Universal General Awareness Training (GAT) was part of a multi-component suicide prevention program in the Australian construction industry. The program's aims were to increase awareness of mental health and suicide, reduce stigma, and encourage help-seeking and help-offering behaviours. This paper sought to examine the effectiveness of the GAT program in shifting suicide beliefs. Pre- and post-training survey data of 20,125 respondents was obtained from a database of GAT evaluation results between 2016 and 2018. Generalized estimating equation (GEE) models were fitted to examine belief changes, and predictive margins and their SEs were computed. Mean differences in belief change were obtained for the overall sample, and by occupation. Modest but significant favourable shifts in three of the four beliefs assessed were observed following GAT. Managers and professionals showed greater propensity to shift beliefs, and Labourers and Machinery Operators and Drivers showed least. Results suggest that GAT can successfully shift some beliefs regarding suicide and mental health at least in the short term, but highlight the need to tailor communication to vulnerable occupational groups.

SUBMITTER: King TL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6211080 | biostudies-other | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Shifting Beliefs about Suicide: Pre-Post Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Program for Workers in the Construction Industry.

King Tania L TL Gullestrup Jorgen J Batterham Philip J PJ Kelly Brian B Lockwood Chris C Lingard Helen H Harvey Samuel B SB LaMontagne Anthony D AD Milner Allison A

International journal of environmental research and public health 20180925 10

Suicide is a significant health problem that is known to disproportionately affect those employed in manual occupations, including construction workers and tradespeople. Universal General Awareness Training (GAT) was part of a multi-component suicide prevention program in the Australian construction industry. The program's aims were to increase awareness of mental health and suicide, reduce stigma, and encourage help-seeking and help-offering behaviours. This paper sought to examine the effectiv ...[more]

PMID: 30257471

Similar Datasets

Project description:In many Western countries, including Australia, construction workers have been identified as being at elevated risk of suicide compared to other workers. A variety of suicide prevention initiatives have been implemented and expanded to reduce suicide in this occupational group; however, the net effect of these is unknown. Using 19 years of national suicide data, this study examined the suicide mortality of Australian male construction workers relative to all other working males, and compared suicide rates over time between the two groups. Age-standardized suicide rates were calculated for construction workers and those employed in other occupations. 2001–2019 trends in age-standardized rates of suicide mortality were analyzed by joinpoint regression analysis. The annual average percentage change (AAPC) measure was calculated for both groups to quantify change over time within each group, complemented by a pair-wise AAPC comparison of changes in trends between the two groups over the 2001–2019 period. Australian male construction workers' overall age-standardized suicide rate was 26.6 per 100,000 persons compared to 13.2 per 100,000 for male workers employed in other occupations (pooled over the entire 2001–2019 period). Over time, the suicide mortality rate declined in both construction workers and those working in other occupations; however, the decline in suicide mortality was greater in construction workers (AAPC: −3.0; 95%CI −4.0, −2.0) compared to other workers (AAPC: 1.5; 95%CI −2.1, −1.0). The AAPC pair-wise comparison showed a significant difference between the rate of decline among construction versus other workers over the 19-year study period (AAPC: −1.4; 95%CI 0.4, 2.5), confirming a rapid decline among construction versus other male workers. This study provides evidence of a decline in suicide rates among Australian construction workers over the last two decades. This decline may be attributable to the combined effects of population-wide, male-specific, and sector-specific suicide prevention efforts over this same period, suggesting that the continuation or expansion of such efforts may lead to further declines.

Project description:BackgroundDutch construction workers are offered periodic health examinations. This care can be improved by tailoring this workers health surveillance (WHS) to the demands of the job and adjust the preventive actions to the specific health risks of a worker in a particular job. To improve the quality of the WHS for construction workers and stimulate relevant job-specific preventive actions by the occupational physician, we have developed a job-specific WHS. The job-specific WHS consists of modules assessing both physical and psychological requirements. The selected measurement instruments chosen, are based on their appropriateness to measure the workers' capacity and health requirements. They include a questionnaire and biometrical tests, and physical performance tests that measure physical functional capabilities. Furthermore, our job-specific WHS provides occupational physicians with a protocol to increase the worker-behavioural effectiveness of their counselling and to stimulate job-specific preventive actions. The objective of this paper is to describe and clarify our study to evaluate the behavioural effects of this job-specific WHS on workers and occupational physicians.Methods/designThe ongoing study of bricklayers and supervisors is a nonrandomised trial to compare the outcome of an intervention (job-specific WHS) group (n = 206) with that of a control (WHS) group (n = 206). The study includes a three-month follow-up. The primary outcome measure is the proportion of participants who have undertaken one or more of the preventive actions advised by their occupational physician in the three months after attending the WHS. A process evaluation will be carried out to determine context, reach, dose delivered, dose received, fidelity, and satisfaction. The present study is in accordance with the TREND Statement.DiscussionThis study will allow an evaluation of the behaviour of both the workers and occupational physician regarding the preventive actions undertaken by them within the scope of a job-specific WHS.Trial registrationNTR3012.

Project description:Multilevel and multimodal interventions have been suggested for suicide prevention. However, few studies have reported the outcomes of such interventions for suicidal behaviours.We examined the effectiveness of a community-based multimodal intervention for suicide prevention in rural areas with high suicide rates, compared with a parallel prevention-as-usual control group, covering a total of 631,133 persons. The effectiveness was also examined in highly populated areas near metropolitan cities (1,319,972 persons). The intervention started in July 2006, and continued for 3.5 years. The primary outcome was the incidence of composite outcome, consisting of completed suicides and suicide attempts requiring admission to an emergency ward for critical care. We compared the rate ratios (RRs) of the outcomes adjusted by sex, age group, region, period and interaction terms. Analyses were performed on an intention-to-treat basis and stratified by sex and age groups.In the rural areas, the overall median adherence of the intervention was significantly higher. The RR of the composite outcome in the intervention group decreased 7% compared with that of the control group. Subgroup analyses demonstrated heterogeneous effects among subpopulations: the RR of the composite outcome in the intervention group was significantly lower in males (RR?=?0.77, 95% CI 0.59-0.998, p?=?0.0485) and the RR of suicide attempts was significantly lower in males (RR?=?0.39, 95% CI 0.22-0.68, p?=?0.001) and the elderly (RR?=?0.35, 95% CI 0.17-0.71, p?=?0.004). The intervention had no effect on the RR of the composite outcome in the highly populated areas.Our findings suggest that this community-based multimodal intervention for suicide prevention could be implemented in rural areas, but not in highly populated areas. The effectiveness of the intervention was shown for males and for the elderly in rural areas.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00737165 UMIN Clinical Trials Registry UMIN000000460.

Dataset Information

Shifting Beliefs about Suicide: Pre-Post Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Program for Workers in the Construction Industry.

Publications

Shifting Beliefs about Suicide: Pre-Post Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Program for Workers in the Construction Industry.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets