Introduction / framework / objectives

Consulting magazines/articles, occasionally there are references to the relevance of the worker's characteristics in the context of Occupational Health (performance, productivity, adherence to good practice standards). However, the term “Human Factors” is not implicitly defined for all individuals working in Occupational Health teams. The purpose of this article is to summarize the most relevant data written on the subject.

Methodology

This is a Bibliographic Review, initiated through a research carried out in June 2021 in the databases “CINALH plus with full text, Medline with full text, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Methodology Register, Nursing and Allied Health Collection: comprehensive, MedicLatina and RCAAP”.

Contents

Human Factor (FH) is a reasonably recent expression, but progressively more used, which encompasses all employee characteristics (physical/biological, cognitive, social and emotional) that somehow modulate performance/productivity, perception of risk, posture, as well as compliance/adherence to Good Practice standards. In other words, the habits, behaviors and personalities of each worker can positively or negatively influence the work (sometimes significantly) and it is generally considered that habits and/or behaviors are more easily changeable than personality.

Discussion and Conclusions

Although the topic is relevant, there is not much quality bibliography. An employer that makes its management valuing the Human Factors, will have an enhanced Occupational Health.

It would be interesting if elements that exercised in the Occupational Health teams in a national context were able to clarify to what extent the Human Factors of each employer take these principles into account.

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