Research Paradigm of Network Approaches in Construction Safety and Occupational Health

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Sep 27;19(19):12241. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191912241.

Abstract

Construction safety accidents seriously threaten the lives and health of employees; however, the complexity of construction safety problems continues to increase. Network approaches have been widely applied to address accident mechanics. This study aims to review related studies on construction safety and occupational health (CSOH) and summarize the research paradigm of recent decades. We solicited 119 peer-reviewed journal articles and performed a bibliometric analysis as the foundation of the future directions, application bottlenecks, and research paradigm. (1) Based on the keyword cluster, future directions are divided into four layers: key directions, core themes, key problems, and important methods. (2) The network approaches are not independently applied in the CSOH research. It needs to rely on different theories or be combined with other methods and models. However, in terms of approach applications, there are still some common limitations that restrict its application and development. (3) The research paradigm of network analysis process can be divided into four stages: description, explanation, prediction, and control. When the same network method encounters different research objects, it focuses on different analysis processes and plays different roles.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis; construction safety management; network approaches; occupational health.

Publication types

  • Review
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Accidents, Occupational / prevention & control
  • Bibliometrics
  • Construction Industry*
  • Humans
  • Occupational Health*
  • Safety Management / methods

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 72091511), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (grant number 8224084), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 51878382).