"The general aim of this licentiate thesis was to contribute to the research-based knowledge about working-life interventions for improved safety and health. Interventions were made among Swedish fishermen (problem: high incidence of occupational injuries) and white-collar computer workers (problem: high prevalence of musculoskeletal illness). Earlier research has indicated that psychological factors such as risk acceptance might counteract activity in safety work among fishermen. In order to test the validity of this in Swedish fishery, a pilot questionnaire study was conducted using a convenience sample (n=92) of Swedish fishermen. The results suggested that although fishery is one of the occupations where injuries are most common (62% of our sample reported experience from injury related events), the perceived risk level was not high. The respondents tended towards high perceived manageability of risks, low degree of fatalism, moderate degree of risk acceptance and relatively high self-reported activity in safety work. Perceived manageability of risks, but not injury/near-injury event experience, perceived personal risk, risk acceptance or fatalism, was (positively) associated with activity in safety work. The intervention in fishery was based on participative principles and used researcher-led group-discussions of occurred events during work, where group members was or could have been injured, as a method. It had as a main aim to explore and generate learning among participants about how risks could be managed preventively. Since this kind of intervention was a novelty in Swedish fishery, feasibility was also a main issue. The study relied mostly on qualitative data from observations and interviews, but also had a pretest-posttest one group quasi-experimental design. The studied group had less than ten members, so the statistical power was low. Results suggested that, contrary to intention, the perceived manageability of risks may have decreased during the intervention period. This may reflect that the group discussions made safety problems more explicit and dealt with difficulties associated with preventive work. The questionnaire study as well as observations from the intervention study indicated that experience from actual or potential injury situations did not motivate preventive measures. Another observation was that common events associated with injury risk often were not identified as deviations from the normal. Qualitative information suggested that the intervention was effective in stimulating activity in safety work, but this was not supported by follow-up questionnaire data. The study indicated that, although sensitive to dropout, participative, talk-based safety interventions in fishery are feasible and may be effective. The intervention among white-collar workers was based on feedback methods. The study was a pretest-posttest cluster-randomised controlled study. The effect studied was group-level change in activity to modify working environment or work postures from pretest to posttest. Thirty-six workgroups (304 persons) from 9 organisations participated and were randomised to one of 3 feedback conditions or a control condition with no feedback. The feedback conditions were: Individual feedback to each group member (individual and group-level data), individual feedback to group supervisor (group level data) and to entire groups (group-level data). The feedback information included psychosocial factors, comfort during computer work, musculosceletal symptoms, ergonomic standard of equipment and working-technique. Follow up was 6 months after intervention. For ergonomic aspects, positive effect on modification activity was observed in all feedback conditions. For psychosocial aspects, positive effect on modification activity was observed in the supervisor feedback condition only. The validity of conclusions regarding feedback effects may be limited due to possible negative control group effects and reporting bias. The results suggested that feedback interventions similar to the one studied might, in order to maximize cost-effectiveness, be directed directly to supervisors or managers."

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