Investigating the relationship between occupational health literacy and safety behavior of mining industry employees with the mediating role of health

Occupational events that sometimes occur due to improper safety management can have a significant impact on workers' productivity; Therefore, by improving the habits and increasing the level of awareness of workers, behavioral safety can be achieved; Because people play a central role in managing their health, they can prevent risks with a range of individual, environmental, and organizational activities in which occupational health literacy is a key factor. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between occupational health literacy and safety behavior with the mediating role of health.

The cross-sectional research method is correlational. The statistical population is made up of the employees of 15 units of Imidro's mining industry, from which 283 people were selected by random sampling. They answered the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) Goldberg (1989), Safety Behavior Mahdi Nia (2016) and Occupational Health Literacy (TOHLS-IF) Suthakorn (2020). The research data were analyzed by structural equation modeling (SEM) with SPSS and AMOS software.

The results with values (AGFI = 0.97, CFI = 0.99, GFI = 0.949, RMSEA = 0.036) indicated a good fit of the model. Based on direct coefficients of the relationship between occupational health literacy and health (β = -0.369, p <0.01), occupational health literacy and safety behavior (β = 0.483, P <0.01), safety and health behavior (β= -0.592, P <0.01) was significant. Therefore, in the indirect coefficient study with Bootstrap test, considering the role of health mediator, the relationship between occupational health literacy and employee safety behavior (β= 0.218, P <0.01) was significantly evaluated.

Utilization of health factors can be used as a determining factor in the impact of occupational health literacy on the safety behavior of mining workers to reduce occupational hazards and achieve a more desirable level of safety.