Small business owners are the major determinant for the level of health and safety found at a work site. Design of health and safety interventions requires an understanding of what motivates small business owners toward implementing occupational health and safety programs, policies, and practices in their workplaces. The goals of this project are (1) to review the literature for information on small business owners' knowledge, behavior, attitudes and beliefs about health and safety; (2) to develop a questionnaire which assesses these factors; and (3) to test this questionnaire with a group of small business owners. Experts from a number of fields (business, sociology, psychology, and occupational health) will be interviewed for information on small business owners' behaviors toward workplace health and safety. Behavioral models used in health promotion and education studies will be used as a guide for identifying individual, interpersonal, and societal factors which may influence owners' health and safety behaviors. A small number of successful and unsuccessful small business owners will be interviewed about their health and safety knowledge and behavior. Information from expert and owner interviews will be combined with that from behavioral theories and models in the development of a questionnaire. This questionnaire will be tested and refined with small groups of owners before it is mailed to a large group of owners. Multiple regression analysis will be used to assess the relationship between the reported level of health and safety and variables for health and safety knowledge, behavior, attitudes, and beliefs.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
Type
Research Scientist Development Award - Research & Training (K01)
Project #
5K01OH000171-02
Application #
6028023
Study Section
Safety and Occupational Health Study Section (SOH)
Project Start
1998-03-01
Project End
2001-02-28
Budget Start
1999-03-01
Budget End
2000-02-29
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
1999
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Department
Public Health & Prev Medicine
Type
Schools of Public Health
DUNS #
168559177
City
Minneapolis
State
MN
Country
United States
Zip Code
55455