Examining the impact of occupational health and safety vulnerability on injury claim reporting in three Canadian provinces

Abstract

Introduction The workers' compensation system covers wages and health care costs associated with work‐related injuries or illnesses. We explore if dimensions of occupational health and safety vulnerability are associated with differences in reporting work‐related injuries to workers' compensation boards (WCBs). Methods We examined data from adults reporting physical workplace injuries requiring time off or health care. We explored relationships between exposure to nine hazards, risk from inadequate policies and procedures, inadequate occupational health and safety (OHS) awareness, inadequate empowerment, and reporting to provincial WCBs. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated to assess risk from dimensions of workplace vulnerability for not reporting an injury to WCBs. Results Of 326 participants, 64% did not report injuries to WCBs. Reporting was higher among those with hazardous workplace exposures compared to those without (40% vs 22%, P = .01), lower among those with inadequate policy and procedures and inadequate awareness protections. Inadequate OHS awareness protection was related to not reporting to WCBs in logistic regression models. Women, those working part‐time, workers in education, health, and public administration, and non‐unionized workers were less likely to report injuries (nonsignificant), while workers with postgraduate educations were significantly less likely to report an injury compared to referent (OR = 3.89, 95% CI: 1.57‐9.62). Conclusion A general lack of knowledge about OHS rights and responsibilities was associated with low levels of reporting. This suggests there is a knowledge deficit among some workers, possibly amenable to joint efforts to increase rights and responsibilities related to OHS with the dissemination of information about rights to workers' compensation.

Extreme heat and work injuries in Kuwait’s hot summers

“…Under-reporting is a common problem in studies that use a registry-like dataset such as what we had or the workers’ compensation data in North America. 16 Assuming this undercount is not associated with the measured exposure, the results we have may be attenuated due to non-differential bias. Second, while temperatures measured at the airport are likely to be a good proxy for Kuwait’s metropolitan areas, daytime and night-time temperatures in Kuwait may differ spatially away from urban areas, although not substantially.…”

“…First, the counts of injuries are certainly underestimated. Under-reporting is a common problem in studies that use a registry-like dataset such as what we had or the workers’ compensation data in North America 16. Assuming this undercount is not associated with the measured exposure, the results we have may be attenuated due to non-differential bias.…”

“…Therefore, the data examined here may underreport the number of injuries, a common shortcoming of occupational health and safety surveillance data. 16 An injury case is defined as any workers' claim for a physical harm that happened in the workplace or in the commute to/from the workplace and subsequently reported to OHA at the ministry. We constructed counts of occupational injuries during the summer ban on midday work from 1 June to 31 August in each of the 5 years.…”

“…Claims data from government employees, domestic workers and workers in the informal economy follow different reporting pathways outside OHA and MOH and were excluded from the present study. Therefore, the data examined here may under-report the number of injuries, a common shortcoming of occupational health and safety surveillance data 16. An injury case is defined as any workers’ claim for a physical harm that happened in the workplace or in the commute to/from the workplace and subsequently reported to OHA at the ministry.…”

Proposed Occupational Vulnerability Index COVID-19

“…The concept of occupational vulnerability is evaluated from a social point of view [40] [41] or related to aspects such as work injuries [42] [43], but in all cases without quantifying and in no case related to the current COVID-19 pandemic.…”