# Enhancing Malaysian Workers' Safety and Health through Safety Culture and Climate mHealth Interventions

> **NIH NIH R21** · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $195,379

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Occupational injuries and workplace accidents still occur on a tremendous scale, despite researchers’
development of successful occupational safety and health interventions for workplace outcomes. There is a
particularly pressing need to 1) better investigate workplace safety in low- and middle-income countries
(LMICs), and 2) bolster methods for substantially reducing accidents. Improving safety climate (SC), a robust
indicator of occupational safety across various industries and countries, is an effective strategy for positively
impacting workplace safety outcomes and accident reduction. Positive SC perceptions motivate employees to
act safely, which leads to safer behaviors, fewer accidents/injuries, more engagement, and less turnover.
However, there is a lack of empirical research in LMICs that examines the effectiveness of SC surveys and
interventions, in part because the established methods in high-income countries (HICs) often use in-person
training that is impractical in LMICs. For Malaysia, we will develop a mobile SC intervention program designed
to improve the safety and health of workers. The practice of medicine and healthcare using mobile devices
(e.g., cell phones, tablets), called “mHealth,” has been used in LMICs to effectively and inexpensively impact
people’s health. Using mHealth as our foundation, we will create and test an evidence-based SC intervention
program in Malaysia using instructional methods and training strategies that have been developed and
practiced in the U.S. by our team. This project will address the significant knowledge gap regarding the impact
of SC interventions in LMICs. Through our collaborative efforts, this project will also equip our colleagues in
Malaysia with effective and practical tools, new experiences, and greater knowledge related to SC, thereby
enhancing their capacity to further investigate and improve SC for workers in Malaysian organizations across
high-risk industries. Our long-term goal is to improve workers’ health and safety by providing them and their
organizations with effective strategies for building superior safety cultures and climates, which they can
implement without outside support. Through this collaboration, an additional goal of this project is to establish
strong partnerships and build the occupational safety and health research capacity in Malaysia. R21 phase
aims include: Aim 1. Translate and adapt our validated safety climate scale, other important outcome scales,
and a safety audit tool for Malaysian workforces. Aim 2. Develop an mHealth-based SC intervention program
for Malaysia's workforces to improve their workplace cultures. Aim 3. Pilot test and revise the mHealth SC
intervention program in Malaysia. R33 phase aims include: Aim 4. Implement the revised mHealth SC
intervention program in three high-risk industries to cross-validate the intervention program. Aim 5. Establish
an Initial SC Benchmark for the Malaysia workforce.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11059534
- **Project number:** 1R21TW012599-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Yueng-hsiang Huang
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $195,379
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-15 → 2026-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11059534

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11059534, Enhancing Malaysian Workers' Safety and Health through Safety Culture and Climate mHealth Interventions (1R21TW012599-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11059534. Licensed CC0.

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