Determining the factors affecting the occupational health and safety culture among buildind construction workers: The case of Çorum

Improving workers occupational health and safety culture is important to reduce work accidents and prevent occupational diseases in the construction sector, as well as to establish healthier and safer work environments. Therefore, in this study, the Occupational Health and Safety Culture (OHSC) scale developed by Olcay (2021) was used to determine the risk factors that negatively affect the total score of the OHSC scale and its sub-dimensions, namely General Work Safety Awareness (GWSA), Occupational Health and Safety Training-Communication (OHSTC), and Risk Perception (RP) scores of building construction workers. To achieve this goal, the frequency distributions and descriptive statistics of demographic, job-related and occupational health and safety-related characteristics containing the independent variables were interpreted in detail. Afterwards, the risk factors that decrease workers' occupational health and safety culture were identified through statistical analyses. According to the obtained results, numerous risk factors were found to have a negative impact on GWSA, OHSTC, RP and OHSC variables, including workers being divorced, illiterate, having poor relationships with colleagues in the workplace, experiencing frequent stress in the work environment, not using personal protective equipment, and not having a safety specialist in the company they work for. Taking into account these risk factors that reduce workers occupational health and safety culture, the study concludes by discussing in detail what should be done to improve occupational health and safety.