The Institute for Work & Health (IWH) is a Canadian leader in work injury and disability prevention research. An independent, not-for-profit organization, IWH conducts and shares actionable research to promote, protect and improve the health and safety of working people.
Looking for research findings and resources on our website about a particular topic? Try our “Selected topics” page. You'll find it under “Our research” on the drop-down menu. From aging to young workers, from cannabis to violence at work, from health care to construction, we might just have the collection of research summaries, journal articles, tools and presentations on your topic of interest.
Workers new to a job, regardless of their age, face higher risks of injury. This workplace health and safety message is based on several studies—including some by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH)—and it has spread far and wide. However, it was only recently that a systematic review on newness and injury risk was carried out. The review, conducted by IWH, confirms a link between newness and the risk of acute injuries—but is inconclusive on the link between newness and the risk of musculoskeletal disorders.
Research suggests that occupational health and safety (OHS) and health promotion programs provide greater benefits to workers’ overall health when they are integrated within an organization’s health and safety strategy. To learn about the types of workplaces where such integration might be easier to implement, a new IWH study set out to learn the common characteristics of Ontario workplaces that offer both. Findings are now summarized in a new Research Highlights.
The latest issue of the Institute for Work & Health's quarterly newsletter, At Work, is now out. In the Summer 2019 issue, read about retirement expectations among boomers with chronic conditions, the use of IWH's leading indicators in a health and safety assessment tool built for Manitoba's building construction employers, the economic case for raising worker awareness about caregiving supports, and more.
As the average age of Canadian workers continues to rise, employers may wonder about the effects on work injury, recovery, return to work and remaining at work. Some may expect that risks of injury are higher among older workers, that their injuries are more severe, or that timelines to recover and return to work are longer. However, findings from recent studies, including several conducted at IWH, paint a more nuanced picture. We summarized the evidence in an article published this spring in the Ontario Occupational Health Nurses Association (OOHNA) Journal.
IN THE CURRENT ISSUE...
Greater job control, job security and social support are linked to both lower risks of mental illness and greater likelihood of flourishing mental well-being.
Evidence-based health and safety benchmarks are now available for building construction employers in Manitoba, thanks to an IWH collaboration with the Construction Safety Association of Manitoba.
New systematic review confirms widespread message that new workers face higher risks of acute injury.
Integrate evidence-based policies and practices into your occupational health and safety, return-to-work and rehabilitation programs. IWH has created a number of tools and guides based on our research findings that can help improve program outcomes.
Find out how IWH research is making a difference. Read our impact case studies, in which policy-makers, workplaces and other stakeholders in health, safety and disability prevention tell how IWH research helped improve their policies, programs and practices.
Whether it’s a policy briefing, a systematic review summary or the highlights of a specific research project, we’ve compiled a number of plain-language summaries to help you understand the research we’re doing, what we have found, and how we found it.
Learn directly from the researchers themselves about their latest findings in health, safety and disability prevention. We host regular presentations (in person or live stream) through our IWH Speaker Series and our annual Nachemson lecture.