In March 2013, Environmental Health Student Ms Anca Stroe posted a questionnaire on the theEHP for her student research project.  Having completed her studies, Ms Stroe has kindly made her research available to all.

Survey
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Abstract

The research analysed the overall perception of health and safety and discovered a slight difference in perception of health and safety at work between the study groups. The study population included participants belonging to two different age groups from England 16 – 24 and 45 – 54 years old. Methodology. Questionnaires and a focus group were considered to be appropriate for the current research. It was believed that the results from the questionnaires would be strengthened by the information gathered from the focus group. Results. The questionnaire resulted in a total of 108 returns of which 57 responses (53%) were received from Group A and 51 responses (47%) were received from Group B. The study discovered that a difference in perception exists between the two age groups as resulted from the questionnaires. However, apart from the importance of health and safety, there was no significant difference between the age groups from the focus group. The results of the study have also revealed that younger employees do not have the same level of training as older individuals, however the proportion of individuals that were not interested in health and safety information was greater in Group A than in Group B. Similarly, Group B considered health and safety as more important compared to Group A. Conclusion. This study can be considered as a base study for future research because it includes several factors that influence the perception of health and safety at work. The fragile perception of health and safety at work is influenced by the combination of different factors. Ultimately, Lofquist et al. (2011) believes that health and safety in the workplace needs to be taken seriously by organisations as it is central to their survival.

The complete dissertation is available here.