Torbat Esfahani Mehdi, Awolusi Ibukun, Hatipkarasulu Yilmaz
School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Construction Management, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2024 Dec 17;21(12):1681. doi: 10.3390/ijerph21121681.
In hot and humid work environments, construction workers can experience heat stress and heat-related illnesses (HRIs). While several studies have investigated engineering and administrative control methods to prevent certain heat stress risk factors, a comprehensive understanding of all existing risk factors and their corresponding control strategies is still lacking. It is crucial to identify gaps in current control strategies and develop a safety management framework for effective heat stress control by implementing existing measures. In addition, the effectiveness of the most common control strategies must be rigorously evaluated to ensure their efficacy and to guide future research aimed at enhancing these strategies or developing more effective ones. This study employed a mixed literature review methodology to address this knowledge gap. A structured literature review investigated and synthesized heat stress risk factors and control methods to find the gaps in control options to address underestimated risk factors. Furthermore, a comprehensive systematic literature review, including trend analysis, scientometric analysis, and meta-analysis, determined research foci and evaluated the effectiveness of the heat stress control methods. The scientometric analysis identified 11 clusters, encompassing key research themes such as environmental risk factors (e.g., high-temperature environments, climate change), administrative controls (e.g., work-rest schedules, climate change risk assessment), and personal interventions (e.g., cooling vests and sleep-related strategies). These findings highlight that the most commonly studied control methods are cooling vests, work-rest schedules, and cooling interventions. According to these results and the availability of quantitative results, the meta-analysis evaluated nine datasets of reductions in core body temperature by using types of cooling vests and anti-heat-stress uniforms and established the significant effectiveness of this control strategy in mitigating heat stress with a medium effect size. Moreover, five potential research studies have been identified to address gaps in control strategies for certain underestimated risk factors, including leveraging sensor technologies, conducting control training, dynamic work-rest schedules, using cutting-edge PPE, and governmental initiatives. Insights gained from this study enhance decision making for resource allocation, selection of control options, and intervention prioritization within a heat-stress-control framework based on the safety management system. The findings also highlight the effectiveness of cooling vests and areas that need to be developed, and evaluate potential heat-stress-control methods in construction.
在炎热潮湿的工作环境中，建筑工人可能会经历热应激和与热相关的疾病（HRIs）。虽然有几项研究调查了工程和行政控制方法以预防某些热应激风险因素，但仍缺乏对所有现有风险因素及其相应控制策略的全面了解。识别当前控制策略中的差距并通过实施现有措施制定有效的热应激控制安全管理框架至关重要。此外，必须严格评估最常见控制策略的有效性，以确保其功效并指导未来旨在改进这些策略或开发更有效策略的研究。本研究采用混合文献综述方法来弥补这一知识差距。结构化文献综述调查并综合了热应激风险因素和控制方法，以找出控制选项中的差距，从而解决被低估的风险因素。此外，一项全面的系统文献综述，包括趋势分析、科学计量分析和荟萃分析，确定了研究重点并评估了热应激控制方法的有效性。科学计量分析确定了11个聚类，涵盖环境风险因素（如高温环境、气候变化）、行政控制（如工作休息时间表、气候变化风险评估）和个人干预措施（如冷却背心和与睡眠相关的策略）等关键研究主题。这些发现表明，研究最多的控制方法是冷却背心、工作休息时间表和冷却干预措施。根据这些结果和定量结果的可得性，荟萃分析通过使用不同类型的冷却背心和抗热应激制服评估了九个降低核心体温的数据集，并确定了该控制策略在减轻热应激方面具有中等效应大小的显著有效性。此外，还确定了五项潜在的研究，以解决某些被低估风险因素的控制策略差距，包括利用传感器技术、开展控制培训、动态工作休息时间表、使用前沿个人防护装备以及政府举措。本研究获得的见解有助于在基于安全管理系统的热应激控制框架内进行资源分配、控制选项选择和干预优先级排序的决策。研究结果还突出了冷却背心的有效性和需要开发的领域，并评估了建筑施工中潜在的热应激控制方法。
