Does investing in occupational health and safety (OHS) pay? Many believe that it does. Yet if that is the case, why hasn't there been a greater uptake of the measures available that would improve both health and safety? The Institute for Work & Health conducted a systematic review not to answer this question directly, but rather a prior, fundamental question: what is the credible evidence that incremental investment in health and safety is worth undertaking?
The systematic review of workplace-based OHS interventions with economic evaluations looked at intervention studies directed at both primary prevention (i.e. workplace interventions focused on reducing and preventing work-related injuries and illness) and secondary prevention (i.e. interventions focused on preventing and reducing disability in those with work-related illness or injury). The review started with a feasibility study in early 2005, an environmental scan on assessing the quality of studies also in 2005, and a full-fledged systematic review of OHS intervention studies with economic evaluations. This final report describes the findings and evidence synthesis from the completed systematic review.