OBJECTIVETo explore the association of occupational injuries, with their individual safety perception and safety behaviors in steel workers, so as to provide basis for preventing and controlling occupational injuries.

METHODSCase-control design was used to compare the difference in safety perception and safety behaviors between the injury group and the control, and also to compare the difference in safety behaviors between different safety perception groups.

RESULTSThere were remarkable differences in attitude toward the safety degree of the work (chi(2) = 5.444, P < 0.05), and accidents happening (chi(2) = 4.552, P < 0.05) between case group and control group. There were remarkable difference in safety behaviors including manual operations instead of facilities (chi(2) = 10.015, P < 0.01), cleaning up, examining or adjusting machine during work (chi(2) = 7.351, P < 0.05), attention diversion (chi(2) = 10.937, P < 0.01) and unsafe wearing (chi(2) = 7.521, P < 0.05) between case group and control group. There were also significant differences in many safety behaviors between those who thought the job was safe or unsafe.

CONCLUSIONThere is some association of occupational injuries with safety perception and safety behaviors. To reduce the occurrence of occupational injury, measures should been focused on strengthening safety management and controlling unsafe behaviors.