Maritime Health Research and Education-NET/Cohort protocols/Nordic Safety Climate Questionnaire-50 Cohort Protocol

Abstract
Background

In maritime industries safer technology and better safety management systems have been developed during the last decade. Safety commitment and safe behavior are still vital to ensure a safe working environment. As the result of research activities involving a Nordic network of occupational safety researchers, NOSACQ-50 was presented. Safety Climate on board ships has been done Article Measuring Safety Culture on Ships Using Safety Climate: A Study among Indian Officers

Objectives

The objective of this study is to explore what factors might influence the reporting of hazardous situations in fishing/seafaring/off-shore/dock-work

The factors on both the individual (work experience, position) and company/organizational level (company size, safety climate) will be studied. It is hypothesized that reporting of hazardous situations is positively predicted by work experience, as operational managers company size and safety climate.

A standard questionnaire study (NOSACQ-50 ) is used involving n=xxx fishermen, operational managers, and service vessel employees in the shipping industry, interviewed by telephone.

The reliability and validity were tested in various studies confirming its effectiveness as a diagnostic tool to investigate the safety climate within organizations. The questionnaire consists of 50 statements, which contribute to evaluating seven SC dimensions.

A purposive sample is a non-probability sample that is selected based on the characteristics of a population and the objective of the study. Purposive sampling is different from convenience sampling and is also known as judgmental, selective, or subjective sampling. the sampling procedure was employed. Correlation and hierarchical regression analysis are applied.

Hypothesis
Individual factors related with the reporting of hazardous situations. Company size and safety climate factors had positive associations with reporting. Larger companies might have more resources for safety management and the development of practical reporting solutions. A positive safety climate might increase the motivation for reporting.

Expected outcome

Efforts by management to improve the safety climate can contribute to the reporting of hazardous events, continuous improvement of safety management, and improvement of the safety level.

Guide for data safety

Introduction
An important development in theoretical safety prevention concepts came in the beginning of the 1980ies when Zohar et al (1980) introduced the concept of safety climate. The injury etiologies should be analyzed by including the multifactorial row of causes and not only single causes related to human error. Since then many studies confirmed that the safety climate, defined as the perception that employees share about the priority of safety in their company, their attitudes towards safety, the way in which colleagues interact with one another on safety issues can affect employee safety. For example, a positive safety climate has been identified as an important factor contributing to the inclination of workers to adhere to safety procedures (Lu and Yang, 2011) and encouraging workers' participation in safety issues (e.g. Smith et al., 2016) Promoting safety consciousness Practices (Dahl and Kongsvik, 2018) shows that employees who learn that safety is a priority in their workplace show a positive safety

Background
This protocol under development is intended to be used as a standard protocol for completion of the Nordic Safety Climate Questionnaire (NOSACQ-50) cross-sectional studies in the MAHRE-Net program. The European Union launches several campaigns for safe workplaces for all types of jobs. However as the maritime sector is relatively small, less than 1% of the population, this campaign will not really reach our maritime target groups. There is evidence that significant problems exist in all of the maritime occupations and screening by the use of the NOSACQ-50 well-known tool is highly relevant. EU promotes safe workplaces

Objectives
To provide systematic and current knowledge about the safety climate in the working environment for seafarers on ships from different countries. To use scientific methods that are well tested on land in many countries and which are supposed to be useful on the ships and thus can ensure relevant and valid results.

Scientific aims
The aim is to help to create Safety Climate Promotion Program. The goal is for everyone to benefit from the project, both for the seafarers and for the companies. The scientific aim is to produce data and publications that convey new knowledge of high validity based on the newest scientific principles for the conduct of studies in peer-reviewed publications.

Hypotheses
It is the aims to test the hypothesis that the working environment and the Safety Climate of the ships differ by ship type and size, area of work, job type of the ship, and other industries onshore. Further that there is a connection between the working environment, lifestyle onboard and home, and the health and welfare of the crews.

Methods
An epidemiological, cross-sectional-based study will be performed by the use of mail distributed, links to self-contained Google Forms about the subjective safety climate including self-assessment of health are used. The content of the questionnaires is demographic information about the person for the students and about the ship for the seafarers. There are two versions of the questionnaire one for the students and one for them when they are in practice as seafarers and later employed seafarers. We include screening for smoking, height, and weight for BMI related to the prevention of the Chronic disease in order to stay in line with the DiMoPEx (CA 15129)

Questionnaire
Questionnaire for Safety Climate

Use of the results for prevention
When the employees have filled in the questionnaire, the overall results for the workplace and for each of the departments are calculated. If the survey seems to indicate problems with the work environment, the work environment committee or other relevant actors at the workplace should discuss how to act on the basis of the results. If help from the outside is needed, the workplace may contact consultants, the Labour Inspection, or relevant organizations. Developed a guide for understanding and interpretation of the results. This guide should be used in connection with the questionnaire.

Long-term perspectives
After a successful first study, the idea is to repeat the questionnaire in 2-3 years with the same workers. Studies with other themes like mental health Culture can be done with Maritime Universities. Further, the aim is to collaborate with other countries, that have shown interest in the same type of study. An identical questionnaire will be used with the possibility to compare between the countries. Our target group of maritime workers includes seafarers, fishermen, port workers, off-shore workers, and seafarers’ wives. That means we will try to do similar studies with the other target groups over time.

We propose a program with methodological training support and supervision of the students’ research projects, their graduation Thesis.

This initiative will contribute to important parts of the UN Sustainable Goals, especially Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing especially for the maritime workers.

Data processing
Data is transferred to electronic processing during the investigation. Standardized statistical methods will be used using the latest data processing SPSS program. Data will be handled under strict confidentiality in anonymous form in the universities. All data will be stored in a special database to use data up following studies later. The Data Inspectorate to be informed and current legislation to be complied with.

Ethical requirements
Since the study does not involve blood sampling, and since participation in the study is completely voluntary after informed consent, the study does not involve ethical problems. All data are treated according to the Act on the duty of confidentiality, and the guidelines for good epidemiological practice will be followed. The participants' anonymity will be ensured in all ways and this will be apparent from the project description and the form. It will be ensured that the electronic form is locked so that the information cannot be seen by anyone other than the researchers. More detailed information

Dissemination of results
The results will also be presented in the Maritime Company News, at conferences, and be available on relevant websites. In case the student wants to go further a scientific article will be published in an international scientific journal.

Pilot study
Pilot studies are carried out among 20 seafarers

Work plan

 * 1) Agreement with workers
 * 2) Questionnaire collection program ready
 * 3) Pilot test of the Form
 * 4) Mail lists established
 * 5) Mail with a link to the questionnaire (Language)
 * 6) Reminder send twice with 2 weeks between
 * 7) Data analyzed and tables prepared
 * 8) Report-publication
 * 9) Prevention plan