Impact of Demographic Features on Health and Safety Practices of Construction Contractors in Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

The construction sector plays a vital role in the economic development of developed and developing nations. Surprisingly, it also contributes greatly to the occupational accidents and ill-health record. To address this problem, this study set out to evaluate the impact of demographic features on the health and safety (H&S) management practices of Nigerian construction small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The study explored whether these demographic features (years of experience, number of employees and age of firm) could significantly predict/influence the major H&S practices of the SMEs. The study involved the conduct of a survey using questionnaires with both closed and open-ended questions to obtain data. The data obtained were used to determine associations between independent variables identified in the literature and 46 H&S practices of SMEs which addressed five H&S core practice areas. The questionnaire was presented to 436 SMEs which were randomly sampled from the 2219 construction contractors registered with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in Abuja. Factor analysis was employed to reduce the 46 H&S practices to eight major H&S practices used for further analysis. The use of hierarchical multiple regression analysis was finally employed to establish the relationship between demographic features and H&S practices of construction SMEs. It was established that all the demographic features are good, positive and significant predictors of H&S practices of construction the SMEs. It was therefore recommended that construction SMEs should lay great emphasis on training and orientation for all level of employees to address the issue of poor safety performance and poor attitude.