Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between occupational accidents of industrial workers, health literacy and workplace safety climate.
Methods: This study was conducted with workers working in the industrial zone of Gemlık, Bursa between August 2020 and December 2020. These individuals were visited in their workplaces. The volunteers were asked to fill out a sociodemographic data form, the Workplace Safety Climate Survey and the Newest Vital Sign Form.
Results: Health literacy level was evaluated among the workers with and without days away from work due to occupational accident and the results were found to be significantly higher for those without days away from work (p=0.001). According to this assessment, total mean score of the Workplace Safety Climate Survey was calculated as 35.45±10.6 (min.=20, max.=70) for individuals with days away from work due to occupational accident and as 48.82±7.81 (min.=27, max.=70) for participants without occupational accident, and statistically there was a significant difference between them (p<0.001). When the relationship between the Newest Vital Sign Scale and Workplace Safety Climate Survey was analyzed, it was determined that positive safety climate perception of the participants significantly and positively affected their health literacy mean scores (r=0.294; p=<0.001).
Conclusions: This study has demonstrated that the health literacy level of employees affects their occupational accident experiences. From this point of view, it may be suggested that employees who work in high risk fields could be chosen from among those with higher health literacy levels. In general terms, the importance of regular trainings for the purpose of decreasing accident rates has been once more shown with this study.