Investigating the Effect of Education Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior on Employee Safety Behaviors

Health organizations regard behavior as a key foundation of today’s common diseases and health problems. This study was designed and implemented in Qazvin industrial Town in the first half of 2009 in order to assess the impact of educational interventions based on theory of planned behavior on improving safety behavior of porcelain industry workers. 75 workers in each intervention and control groups participated in a quasi-experimental randomized controlled trial. Demographic information and data related to TPB constructs, knowledge and safety performance were collected through a self-administered questionnaire and the safe operation checklist 3 months and 6 months after the intervention. Panel of experts, Cronbach's alpha coefficient, test-retest reliability coefficient and Kappa coefficient were used to confirm the psychometric properties of the tools. Educational intervention accompanied by booklets was applied in the form of four 45 to 60 minute training classes attended by 8 to 15 workers in each class through group discussion method focusing on theory of planned behavior constructs. The Data were analyzed by Repeated measure ANOVA. The average age of participants was 31± 7.4 years, and 65 percent of participants were male. Before the intervention, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of demographics and the study main variables. After training, however, results showed significant changes of mean scores of attitude (from 17.17±5.37 to 25.6±4.45, P<0.001), subjective norms (from 4.73±2.05 to 6.95±1.49, P<0.05), perceived behavior control (from2.72±1.07 to 6.89±1.6, P<0.001), intention (from 7.97±3.61±10.86±2.76, P<0.05), self report behavior (from 2.20±1.01 to 3.6±1.22), knowledge (from 6.96±1.84 to 9.87±1.47) and safety behavior (from 6.32±1.45 to 8.5±2.11, P<0.05) in the experimental group, while no significant changes in these variables was observed in the control group. The research results show that TBP educational intervention is able to change workers’ awareness, attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavior control towards unsafe behavior and improve their safety performance.