Gauging mental fatigue in safety critical work

Gauging mental fatigue in safety critical work

The HSE has published a report focusing on the assessment of the risks arising from mental fatigue in safety critical work. There is growing evidence that certain features of work organisation related to working time are linked to an increase of errors, accidents and possibly to ill-health. The work was carried out by the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency on behalf of HSE.

Those researches have led to the development of a Fatigue Index: a method for determining the likelihood of tiredness arising from certain key factors which may be present in the workplace. These factors include: time of day, time on shift, rest periods, breaks, and cumulative fatigue.

The Fatigue Index provides a straightforward way of comparing the features of two working patterns in terms of their relative contributions to fatigue. The Index can be used with care to inform employers' decisions about proposed changes to working patterns.

Whilst the Index, in its present form is useful, there are particular areas where HSE is planning some further work.