Effect of physical exertion on workers safety awareness: A biosensing and eye-tracking study

Abstract

Construction's unique occupational health and safety challenges manifest from workers' exposure to stressful and hazardous conditions, impairing their cognitive abilities to identify and eliminate risky situations. Physical stress imposed as physical exertion is a major workplace stress category that impacts construction workers' safety behavior. While previous studies have demonstrated the effect of physical exertion on workers' hazard recognition and safety performance, research gaps persist regarding the direct impact of physical exertion on workers' physiological responses and near-miss recognition performance. This study investigates workers' ability to recognize near-miss incidents using an eye-tracking experiment conducted in controlled non-stress and physical stress (overexertion) conditions. Thirty-five participants were exposed to near-miss scenarios from construction sites. Physiological and eye-tracking matrices measured their bio signals and safety behavior during the experiment. The findings from this study reveal that physical overexertion triggered by manual material handling activity can adversely affect worker safety behavior and cognitive ability toward near-miss recognition. Visual attention toward near-miss scenarios was reduced by 39.43 % post-exposure to physical exertion. Additionally, physiological data collected using wearable sensors shows a significant statistical association with near-miss recognition of participants. Individuals with low neuroticism and extraversion showed the highest reduction in recognition performance post-exposure to physical exertion. The study confirms the significant impact of fatigue on reducing workers' efficiency in identifying near-misses, suggesting avenues for developing overexertion relief assessment systems using wearable sensors. Additionally, personality-based safety worker allocation models could aid in recruiting and training workers with lower recognition abilities.