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Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are responsible for one-third of global deaths. Work stress is a major risk factor for CVDs in the workforce. Construction professionals endure excessive work stress, yet their vulnerability to CVDs remains underexplored. The study investigated the prevalence of CVDs among construction professionals and its relationships to job stressors, stress coping methods and socio-demographics.

An online survey was conducted among construction professionals in Australia wherein data related to job stressor experiences, stress management methods adopted, and incidents of CVDs were collected. Structural path analysis was conducted to discover associations.

Junior level professionals reported higher incidents of angina and heart muscle weakening than others. Statistically significant positive associations were discovered between the reported CVDs, and job stressors such as excessive workload, unpredictable work hours, lack of support, discrimination and work–life conflict and negative stress coping methods such as consuming alcohol and/or drugs, emotional eating and aggression. However, no evidence was found to support the claim that demographic factors such as age and gender were also risk factors for CVDs.

The workers' compensation system provides financial protection to injured employees. It extends similar protection for work-related illnesses; however, it is more difficult to prove work-related causes for illnesses. The study provides scientific evidence to support the recognition of CVDs among construction professionals as work-related diseases, mediated by work stress.

Many buildings fail to meet user expectations, causing a performance gap. Pre-occupancy evaluation (PrOE) is believed to have the potential to close the gap. It enables designers to obtain end-user feedback in the design phase and improve the design for better performance. However, PrOE implementation faces challenges due to still maturing knowledgebase. This study aims to understand the state-of-the-art knowledge of PrOE, thereby identifying future research needs to advance the domain.

A systematic literature review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) framework was conducted. A thorough search in five databases and Google Scholar retrieved 90 articles, with 30 selected for systematic review after eliminating duplicates and irrelevant articles. Bibliometric analyses were performed using VOSviewer and Biblioshiny on the article metadata, and thematic analyses were conducted on their contents.

PrOE is a vehicle for engaging building end-users in the design phase to address the credibility gap caused by the discrepancies between the expected and actual performance of buildings. PrOE has gained limited applications in healthcare, residential, office and educational building design for two broad purposes: design management and marketing. Using virtual reality technologies for PrOE has demonstrated significant benefits. Yet, the PrOE domain needs to mature in multiple perspectives to serve its intended purpose effectively.

This study identifies four knowledge gaps for future research to advance the PrOE domain: (1) developing a holistic PrOE framework, integrating comprehensive performance evaluation criteria, useable at different stages of the design phase and multi-criteria decision algorithms, (2) developing a mixed reality tool, embodying the holistic PrOE framework, (3) formulating a PrOE framework for adaptive reuse of buildings and (4) managing uncertainties in user requirements during the lifecycle in PrOE decisions.

Data from different countries suggest a higher prevalence of anxiety, depression and suicides among manual and trade workers in the construction industry than in the general population. The present review examines the causes and effects of poor mental health and the effectiveness of interventions to improve manual and trade workers' mental health in the construction industry. It also identifies gaps in research and makes several suggestions for practice and future research.

A systematic literature review was conducted to examine and consolidate evidence reported in 54 relevant journal articles published between 2010 and 2021 on the mental health of manual and trade workers.

Three major themes emerged in the review of the 54 journal articles: causes of poor mental health, effects of poor mental health and interventions to improve mental health. The leading causes of poor mental health among construction manual and trade workers are poor work-life balance, high job demand, poor cultural norms and mental health stigma, chronic bodily pain, lack of social support, workplace injustice and job insecurity. The prominent effects of poor mental health are suicidality, drug and alcohol addiction, poor workplace safety and poor work performance. Moreover, the study found that some of the strategies recently implemented in the construction industry to improve mental health are deemed ineffective, or their effectiveness remains inconclusive.

The review's scope is limited to research on manual and trade workers, and it did not investigate the mental health of construction professionals and construction management students.

The review provides valuable insights into the causes and effects of poor mental health among manual and trade workers and the effectiveness of mental health interventions in the construction industry.

The construction industry has a poor reputation for an unhealthy lifestyle and a high prevalence of health problems such as obesity, stress and hypertension among construction workers. The review examines the factors influencing the design and delivery of health promotion programs implemented by construction organisations to educate workers and promote a healthy lifestyle. It also identifies gaps in research and practices and proposes directions for future research.

A systematic review of 51 relevant journal articles published during 2010–2019 was undertaken to achieve the aim of the study.

The review reveals 46 different factors grouped into four major themes related to individuals, organisations, industry and the program, influencing the successful implementation of health promotion programs. The top ten most cited factors are cost, time, facilities and resources, transient workforce, delivery method, influence from managers, long working hours, masculine culture, production pressure and interest. The review also found a noticeable lack of studies on implementing health promotion programs in the context of developing countries, small and medium-sized construction organisations, residential sector workers, and construction professionals and female workers.

The review's scope is limited to research on health promotion programs, and it did not investigate the factors affecting the health of construction workers in construction projects.

A better understanding of various influencing factors present at different decision levels will inform the future implementation of targeted workforce health promotion strategies to foster construction workers' health and well-being.

The review reveals bottlenecks that need to be addressed to successfully implement health promotion programs in the construction industry. It provides new insights that can improve existing health and workplace policies and health promotion programs in the construction industry. Finally, it identifies new research directions in a neglected but crucial area of workers' health and safety management.

Freeways in Australia play a significant role in connecting distant communities, shifting freight and strengthening the country’s economy. To meet the growing needs of present and future generations, delivering a socially sustainable road infrastructure that creates generational benefits is essential. However, the existing literature reveals the lack of comprehensive indicators to assess the social sustainability performance of freeway projects. Therefore, this paper aims to identify a critical set of system-specific indicators to evaluate the life cycle social footprint of Australian freeways.

This study conducted 31 interview questionnaire surveys with actively engaged stakeholders involved in various freeway projects around Australia. The data collected was analysed using fuzzy set theory and other statistical approaches.

The study identified 42 critical indicators for assessing the social sustainability performance throughout the life cycle of freeways in the Australian context. For example, stakeholder involvement, reduction of casualty rate due to road accidents, fair remuneration to project workforce and improved accessibility to required services.

The context-specific opinions extracted from the industry experts and the comprehensive set of critical indicators identified would ensure that all the vital aspects of social sustainability are considered throughout the life cycle of Australian freeways in the future, assisting the decision-makers in enhancing the project’s social sustainability performance.

The linguistic explanations associated with the ratings given by the industry experts provide greater insight into the context of the life cycle social sustainability assessment of Australian freeways exclusively.

The construction industry in Singapore has been recording higher accident rates compared with other industries. As an initiative to reduce occupational accidents, the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore proposed to clients to adopt quality‐fee method (QFM) for tender evaluation, departing from the traditional lowest price method. Assessing tenderers' safety proposals is a crucial task for clients' project managers to implement QFM, but it is a difficult and challenging task. This study aims to provide a tool to facilitate this.

A triple‐index model was developed for estimating potential accident risks in building projects, given that a contractor's proposed safety system is in place to combat the accident hazards inherent in the project. The model was then automated as a decision support system (DSS). Case studies were conducted to test the reliability and accuracy of the DSS.

The DSS produces project accident indices, and it was found in the case studies that values for this index are positively correlated with the number of accidents in building projects. The findings proved that the DSS makes a significant contribution to the state‐of‐the‐art of risk assessment.

The proposed model and its DSS would facilitate the implementation of QFM for tender evaluation and thereby reduce accidents.

The paper presents a novel tool to combat accidents in construction at the early stage of tender evaluation.