Beskæftigelsesudvalget 2021-22
BEU Alm.del Bilag 301
Offentligt
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Plain Language Summary
Social Welfare
2022
Occupational safety interventions directed at the group
or organisational level are more effective in preventing
accidents than individual-level measures
Occupational safety interventions directed at the
group or organisational level are more effective
at improving safety and behaviour and reducing
accidents at work than interventions directed solely
at the individual level.
Multifaceted measures are particularly effective
when they include elimination, substitution or
other engineering controls. Safety regulation
and enforcement contribute to the prevention of
accidents at work, but with lesser effect.
What is this review about?
Accidents at work are responsible for considerable
morbidity and mortality, with an estimated 380,000+
fatalities a year worldwide. There are over 3,700
fatalities in the European Union annually, while
reported non-fatal accidents at work amount to
approximately 3.2 million cases annually.
The evidence base regarding what works in preventing
accidents at work is limited, which inhibits informed
decision-making by policy makers, occupational
health and safety practitioners, business owners,
managers and workers in selecting the most effective
approaches to reduce accidents at work.
This systematic review fills this gap by focusing on
the main types of occupational safety interventions
directed at the individual, group or organisational level.
This includes attitude, behaviour and physiological
modifications, changes in structural conditions,
such as legislation and engineering controls (such
as barriers, or measures that remove hazardous
conditions), and multifaceted approaches combining
two or more safety interventions.
What studies are included?
This review includes studies that evaluate the
effectiveness of interventions to improve safety and
reduce accidents at work. A total of 100 studies,
containing 120 safety interventions were of sufficient
methodological quality to be included in the analyses.
The studies use experimental, quasi-experimental
or observational study designs, with about one-third
being of high quality, one-fourth of moderate quality,
and the remaining being low-quality studies.
What are the main findings of this review?
Strong evidence supports greater effects being
achieved with safety interventions directed towards
The review findings do not
mean that safety training is
not relevant, but rather that it
is ineffective in the absence of
other efforts.
What is the aim of this review?
The aim of this Campbell systematic review is to
assess the effectiveness of broad classes of safety
interventions in preventing accidents at work, and
to examine which intervention components are
most effective.
 BEU, Alm.del - 2021-22 - Bilag 301: Orientering om forskningsartikel fra NFA om de mest effektive tiltag til at forbedre sikkerheden og forebygge arbejdsulykker, fra beskæftigelsesministeren
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the group or organisational level rather than at the
individual level. Engineering controls, including
elimination and substitution, are more effective at
reducing accidents at work than other approaches,
particularly when engineered changes are introduced
independently of workplace practices and ‘decision-
to-use’ by workers.
Multifaceted approaches combining intervention
elements at the organisational level, or across levels,
provide moderate to strong effects, particularly when
engineering controls are included. The evidence
supports safety regulation and enforcement, but with
lower effect sizes.
Effects are modest for safety climate interventions,
e.g. leadership safety communication. Intensive group
discussions are effective approaches (at medium term
follow-up). No effects are found for various physical
training methods on reducing accidents at work.
Behavioural approaches, such as general coaching
and feedback or safety training, are less effective. This
does not mean that safety training is not relevant, but
rather it is ineffective in the absence of other efforts.
How have these interventions worked?
How up-to-date is this review?
The review authors searched for studies up to
July 2015.
What is the Campbell Collaboration?
Campbell is an international, voluntary, non-profit
research network that publishes systematic
reviews. We summarise and evaluate the quality
of evidence about programmes in the social and
behavioural sciences. Our aim is to help people
make better choices and better policy decisions.
About this summary
This summary is based on Dyreborg, J., Lipscomb,
H. J., Nielsen, K., Törner, M., Rasmussen, K.,
Frydendall, K. B., Bay, H., Gensby, U., Bengtsen,
E., Guldenmund, F., & Kines, P. (2022). Safety
interventions for the prevention of accidents at
work: A systematic review.
Campbell Systematic
Reviews,
18, e1234.
https://doi.org/10.1002/
cl2.1234.
Financial support from the American Institutes
for Research for the production of this summary is
gratefully acknowledged.
The relative effectiveness of workplace safety
interventions is in accordance with the Public Health
Hierarchy of Hazard Control, whereby interventions
that are more effective in preventing accidents
eliminate risks at the source of the hazard through
engineering solutions or the separation of workers
from hazards.
What do the findings of this review mean?
Occupational safety intervention efforts should foster
safer working environments, machines, tools and
working conditions rather than solely focusing on how
workers can mitigate the risks. The latter approach
should be a last resort, exercised only when other
more effective measures are not feasible.
Even though effects are modest for legislation and
enforcement, their population-based effects can
potentially be quite large, as they are often applied to
broad groups of workers.
For some types of safety interventions, the level of
evidence is insufficient or limited: safety campaigns
and training, behavioural-based safety interventions,
interventions directed at changes in safety climate and
administrative controls, and soft regulation such as
audits and certification systems. Here further research
should be encouraged.
There is a need for clarification as to how various types
of safety intervention are classified. The review authors
propose a classification of safety interventions, which
they hope can be a starting point in more clearly
defining safety interventions in future studies.
The Campbell Collaboration
[email protected]
campbellcollaboration.org
EN-0225