Abstract
The health and safety (H&S) of construction workers has been a subject of much
deliberation for decades. However, there is scant literature focusing on aspects of workers’
safety performance (SP) relating to their unhealthy and unsafe eating behavior. The paper
presents findings on an exploratory factor analysis of H&S performance measures. A 10-
item questionnaire which was developed after an extensive literature review was used to
collect empirical data on SP of construction workers in the Gauteng Province of South
Africa. Results showed that SP could be reasonably measured by two constructs. The two
constructs were clearly defined as trailing and prevailing. The emerged trailing measures
were named lagging indicators while the prevailing ones were designated as leading
indicators. The results lend support to extant literature which advocates the use of both
leading and lagging safety performance indicators for effectively assessing construction
workers’ safety performance. The study provides evidence which could be beneficial in
psychometric evaluation of construction workers’ safety performance and behaviours on
construction sites.