Abstract
With a suicide rate higher than any other employment group in the UK, poor mental health of construction employees is an issue that urgently needs a solution. Meanwhile, using digital technology to support employees’ mental health has been found to reduce long-term costs and lead to significant health improvements in prior research. Against this backdrop, this chapter aims to evaluate the state of digital technology that measures and improves mental health in the construction industry through a systematic literature review. The review found that using digital technology to enhance construction employees’ mental health is still at an early stage of development, given that only three relevant studies were identified. Relatively speaking, there is far more construction literature (i.e. 21 studies) focusing on using digital technology (e.g. wearables) to measure employees’ mental health status. Although integrating these two fields of study (i.e. measurement and intervention) could provide more comprehensive support to employees’ mental health, there is very limited research in construction that aims to do so. Future research is recommended to investigate this.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Handbook of Construction Safety, Health and Well-being in the Industry 4.0 Era |
| Editors | Patrick Manu, Gao Shang, Paulo Jorge Silva Bartolo, Valarie Francis, Anil Sawhney |
| Place of Publication | Abingdon, UK |
| Publisher | Routledge |
| Chapter | 17 |
| Pages | 198-211 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781003213796 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781032079929, 9781032101354 |
| Publication status | Published - 18 Apr 2023 |
Keywords
- mental health; construction; digital technology; intervention; measurement; psychological well-being