Citation

Laberge M, Ledoux E. Work 2011; 39(3): 215-232.

Affiliation

Université du Québec à Montréal, CINBIOSE, Montréal (Qc), Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, IOS Press)

DOI

10.3233/WOR-2011-1170

PMID

21709358

Abstract

Many overview articles, reports, book chapters and literature reviews have examined the health and safety of young workers. These sources discuss the relationships between the work conditions of young workers and the various indicators of accidents and occupational diseases. Breslin et al. [12,13] conducted two literature reviews of quantitative studies to determine which factors best predicted work accidents and occupational disorders in young people. The present article proposes a review of young people's occupational health and safety (OHS) factors (e.g., demographic, individual, professional, organizational, temporal and operational factors) in both qualitative and quantitative studies. Five types of problems were analyzed in greater depth, namely MSD symptoms, respiratory, allergy and toxicological problems, mental health and well-being, alcohol and drug consumption, and fatigue. This review likewise examines related dimensions that allow us to adopt a more global perspective on this subject by considering such elements as young people's values, their knowledge and attitudes, safety practices in companies, the safe integration of young people, and rehabilitation. A total of 189scientific articles were selected on the basis of certain criteria. These articles came from refereed OHS journals published between 1994 and 2005.

Language: en