Background: Workers in the mining industry are exposed to whole-body vibration (WBV), hand-arm vibration (HAV), and foot-transmitted vibration (FTV). The purposes of the study were to: critically review occupational health and safety education intervention programs that have been conducted within rural and northern communities and industries; examine the vibration-focused education resources in northern Ontario; and develop, implement, and evaluate an occupational health education intervention program, the Vibration Toolkit.
Methods: The Content-Context-Process-Outcome framework was used to guide a mixedmethods study that included four phases. Phase 1 included a literature search of six electronic databases for peer-reviewed scientific journal articles focused on an occupational health education intervention or programs. Phase 2 consisted of an education review of the online education catalogues of Workplace Safety North, Workers’ Health and Safety Centre, and Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers. Phase 3 involved the development of an occupational health education intervention to address vibration exposure in the mining industry. Phase 4 was comprised of the implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of the Vibration Toolkit on knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour beliefs related to vibration exposure with a local mining company.
Results: Phase 1 yielded six articles to provide recommendations for considerations for content development, context considerations related to the target population and industry, and approaches to improve process and outcomes of the intervention. In Phase 2, only one course and three resources documents were found to address vibration exposure (WBV=1, HAV=2, FTV=0). Phase 3 resulted in the creation of the Vibration Toolkit to provide education about all vibration types. Phase 4 implementation took place over a 5- month (February 2017 – June 2017) period at an underground mining operation in northern Ontario. Sixty-one participants attended all education sessions and completed the pre-intervention and post-intervention surveys. Statistically significant positive improvements were observed for behaviour belief scores between pre-intervention and post-intervention (p<0.001).
Conclusion: An identified gap was found to exist in education courses and materials focused on vibration exposure within the mining industry. The Vibration Toolkit was developed to fill the identified gap and resulted in significant improvements in behaviour beliefs related to vibration exposure.