[Current status and challenges of supervisory organizations' support for the health and safety of technical intern trainees: Focusing on collaboration with occupational health professionals].

Abstract

Objectives: We aimed to clarify the current status and challenges of supervisory organizations' support for the health and safety of technical intern trainees in Japan. We also assessed the effectiveness of collaboration with occupational health professionals at a training site to investigate the potential for such collaboration to help solve related problems.

Methods: In October 2021, we distributed a questionnaire survey by postal mail to 3,262 supervisory organizations. We requested responses from those directly engaged in training technical intern trainees and those connected with training companies. We inquired regarding the frequency and difficulty of providing support for the health and safety of technical intern trainees (based on 22 survey items). Subsequently, we conducted a multiple logistic regression analysis to assess the association between collaboration with occupational health professionals and the difficulty of obtaining support.

Results: The analysis included 932 cases (response rate: 28.6%). Vietnam (76.6%) was the most frequent country of origin for trainees, and 10-49 (30.3%) was the most frequent range for the number of trainees. Over the preceding year, 17.0% of the organizations had collaborated with occupational health professionals at the training site. The most frequently indicated items on the survey were "explaining and interpretating for medical checkups," "providing traffic safety education and interpretation," and "accompanying and interpreting for health care facilities." Over 80% of the respondents answered that these actions were easy to implement. In contrast, only 30-40% of respondents answered that "counseling on mental health problems," "counseling on marriage, pregnancy, and childbirth," and "counseling on sexual harassment and power harassment" were easy to implement. The supervisory organizations that had collaborated with occupational health professionals tended to report that "providing traffic safety education and interpretation" (p = .049) and "providing health and safety education and interpretation" (p = .072) were easier than they were for organizations that had no support from occupational health professionals.

Conclusions: The supervisory organizations surveyed faced challenges in dealing with mental health problems, marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, and harassment of technical intern trainees. Those organizations that collaborated with occupational health professionals found it easier to provide education on traffic safety and occupational safety and health education. Thus, the presence of a person in charge of health and safety in the planning of training programs and opportunities for education was considered important for promoting collaboration between supervisory organizations and occupational health professionals.