Determinant of Personal Protective Equipment Practices on Construction Welders

The construction sector has been the largest contributor to the occurrence of accidents around the world. One of the production processes in construction at risk of accidents and occupational diseases is welding work. In Indonesia, especially in Surakarta, there are still a number of welders in the construction sector who work without using personal protective equipment (PPE), while the welding work itself is a risky job in terms of health and safety. This paper examines the most influential predisposing factor towards the practice of personal protective equipment application on welders. Predisposing factors studied in this study were age, working hours, level of education, history of work accidents in welding, knowledge and practice in the use of personal protective equipment. Cross sectional study was employed in the study conducted from February to July 2017 in 20 construction site locations in Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. The research population consisted of 430 construction workers in 100 construction site locations of welding in Surakarta. The sampling technique employed was multistage random sampling one. Sample was taken from 20 locations in 5 districts of Surakarta, leaving 245 welders being the sample. The knowledge is the most influential factor surrounding the practice of using protective equipment on construction workers welding in Surakarta, Indonesia. A good knowledge of welders can increase the opportunities in the good practice of using personal protective equipment up to 6 times (p value=0.001, Exp. B=6, 020).