Scientific reports
Scientific reports are Institute for Work & Health (IWH) project-based reports for funders and interested stakeholders. Written by research teams that are led by or include an IWH scientist, the reports generally include the context and rationale for the study, how it was conducted (i.e. methodology) and its findings, followed by a discussion and, if applicable, recommendations. These reports are not peer-reviewed, although they often form the basis of peer-reviewed journal articles that are later published.
Role of health-care providers in the workers' compensation system and the return-to-work process: executive summary
Kosny A, Lifshen M, Tonima S, Yanar B, Russell E, MacEachen E, Neis B, Koehoorn M, Beaton DE, Furlan AD, Cooper J
Health-care providers play an important role in the return to work of injured workers, yet research suggests they sometimes struggle with this responsibility. This executive summary provides an overview of the findings of a study on health-care providers' experiences in return to work and in working with workers' compensation systems.
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Role of health-care providers in the workers' compensation system and the return-to-work process: final report
Kosny A, Lifshen M, Tonima S, Yanar B, Russell E, MacEachen E, Neis B, Koehoorn M, Beaton DE, Furlan AD, Cooper J
Health-care providers play an important role in the return to work of injured workers, yet research suggests they sometimes struggle with this responsibility. This report shares the findings of a study on health-care providers' experiences in return to work and in working with workers' compensation systems. It also suggests practices and policies that may help clarify the role of health-care providers and make workers’ compensation systems easier to navigate for all stakeholders.
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Economic burden of lung cancer and mesothelioma in Canada due to occupational asbestos exposure (2016)
Tompa E, Kalcevich C, McLeod CB, Lebeau M, Fong D, McLeod K, Kim J, Demers P
This June 2016 presentation provides an early look at the results of an economic burden study on the costs to Canadian society of new cases of lung cancers and mesothelioma attributable to occupational asbestos exposures in a particular year.
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Economic burden of lung cancer and mesothelioma in Canada due to occupational asbestos exposure (2015)
Tompa E, Kalcevich C, McLeod CB, Lebeau M, Fong D, McLeod K, Kim J, Demers P
This November 2015 presentation provides an early look at the results of an economic burden study on the costs to Canadian society of new cases of lung cancers and mesothelioma attributable to occupational asbestos exposures in a particular year.
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Work injury and poverty: investigating prevalence across programs and over time
Tompa E, Scott-Marshall H, Ballantyne P, Saunders R, Hogg-Johnson S
This report shares the findings from a study on the prevalence of poverty among permanently impaired injured workers across different time periods and receiving benefits from different legislative programs.
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Understanding the management of injury prevention and return to work in temporary work agencies
MacEachen E, Saunders R, Lippel K, Kosny A, Mansfield L, Carrasco C
How are temporary work agencies organized to manage injury prevention and return to work in light of their non-standard organization? How can we better protect the workplace health of temporary work agency workers? This report shares the results of a study that aimed to answer these questions, focusing on job placements for unskilled and semi-skilled jobs by temporary agencies of all sizes.
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Needlestick injury prevention: lessons learned from acute-care hospitals in Ontario
Chambers A, Mustard C
To help stakeholders understand why needlestick injuries continue to occur in Ontario hospitals despite a regulation accelerate the adoption of safety-engineered needles, Institute for Work & Health researchers took a close look at the policies and practices of three acute-care hospitals in the province. This report documents their findings.
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Assessment of the utility of WorkSafeNB's Internal Responsibility System Questionnaire and IWH's Organizational Performance Metric: public report
Albert AL, Amick B, Kerr B, Swift M
In 2010, WorkSafeNB asked the Institute for Work and Health (IWH) to assess its Internal Responsibility System Questionnaire (IRSQ), a survey tool it had developed to measure safety culture within an organization. As part of its assessment, IWH compared the IRSQ with another previously validated tool designed to measure leading indicators, called the IWH Organizational Performance Metric (IWH-OPM). This document reports on the assessment of these two tools.
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Adequacy of workers’ compensation benefits: supplemental report
Tompa E, Mustard C
This report describes the findings of a supplemental analysis of the adequacy of workers’ compensation earnings replacement benefits. The original analysis measured the adequacy of earnings replacement benefits for permanently disabled workers under two workers’ compensation benefit regimes in Ontario. The supplementary analysis ihcludes the contribution of Canada Pension Plan Disability (CPP-D) benefits to the assessment of the adequacy of wage replacement benefits.
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Systematic review of prognostic factors for workers' time away from work due to acute low-back pain: an update
Steenstra I, Irvin E, Heymans M, Mahood Q, Hogg-Johnson S
This report explores the factors that affect how long it will take workers to return to work following an absence due to acute low-back pain, based upon the results of a systematic review update conducted by the Institute for Work & Health.
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Red Flags/Green Lights: a multiple stakeholder evaluation of the uses of a return-to-work problems guide
MacEachen E, Cardoso S, Kosny A, Mansfield L, Keown K
In May 2009, the Institute for Work & Health developed Red Flags/Green Lights: A Guide to Identifying and Solving Return-to-Work Problems to help decision-makers identify and manage return-to-work (RTW) problems. This document reports on a study that evaluated how this guide is being used by various RTW stakeholders.
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Delicate dances: new immigrants' experiences after a work-related injury
Kosny A, Lifshen M
This is a plain-language report summarizing the findings of an Institute for Work & Health study that explored the experiences of recent immigrants who were injured on the job.
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Immigrant workers' experiences of injury reporting and claim filing: final report
Kosny A, Lifshen M, MacEachen E, Smith PM, Jafri GJ, Neilson C, Pugliese D, Shields J
The experiences of recent immigrants who are injured on the job, including their knowledge of their rights, encounters with employers and health-care providers, and experiences with injury reporting and claim filing, are detailed in this study report from the Institute for Work & Health.
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Review of safety resources for recent immigrants entering the Canadian workforce
Kosny A, Lifshen M
This national scan from the Institute for Work & Health looks at some of the services, programs and resources on occupational health & safety and workers' compensation that are available to recent immigrants to Canada. It also discusses trends in the types of resources available, identifies important gaps, and highlights case studies of programs that present interesting opportunities for providing this information to newcomers.
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Emergency department visits for the treatment of work-related injury and illness in Ontario
Mustard C, Chambers A, Bielecky A, McLeod CB, Smith PM
A study from the Institute for Work & Health, detailed in this report, suggests emergency department records in Ontario can provide an independent source of reliable surveillance information on acute job-related injuries and illnesses.
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Systematic review of intervention practices for depression in the workplace
Furlan AD, Gnam W, Carnide N, Irvin E, Amick B, DeRango K, McMaster R, Cullen KL, Brouwer S, Bultmann U, Slack T
Depression in the workplace is widespread, and workplaces feel its financial pinch in the form of absenteeism and presenteeism. Yet workplace programs that specifically target depression remain uncommon, perhaps because little information is available on the effectiveness of these programs when it comes to improving outcomes of importance to employers. This systematic review set out to provide such information and its results are included in this report.
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Report on knowledge transfer and exchange practices: a systematic review of the quality and types of instruments used to assess KTE implementation and impact
Van Eerd D, Cole DC, Keown K, Irvin E, Kramer D, Gibson J, Kohn M, Mahood Q, Slack T, Amick B, Phipps D, Garcia J, Morassaei S
This report shares the findings of a systematic review that looked across a wide variety of research fields to identify tools that can accurately and reliably measure how well KTE activities bring research evidence to practitioners and change their knowledge, attitudes and/or behaviour.
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Benchmarking organizational leading indicators for the prevention and management of injuries and illnesses: final report
Amick B, Farquhar A, Grant K, Hunt S, Kapoor K, Keown K, Lawrie C, McKean C, Miller S, Murphy C, Nichol K, Roche M, Sackville-Duyvelshoff C, Shermer P, Speers J, Swift M, Szabo M, Vandevis T, Young J
Can a simple tool be developed that will predict a firm’s workplace injury experience based on an assessment of its health and safety policies and practices? This was the question that a team of partners within Ontario's occupational health and safety (OHS) system set out to answer, and it looks like the answer is “yes.” This report describes the team's work developing these potential OHS leading indicators.
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OHSCO System Performance Measurement Report 2008
Speers J, Robson LS, Mustard C
The Occupational Health & Safety Council of Ontario (OHSCO) released its final report on system performance measurements. The report highlights trends of key performance indicators in the Ontario prevention system in 2008.
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Systematic review of the effectiveness of training and education for the protection of workers
Robson LS, Stephenson C, Schulte P, Amick B, Chan S, Bielecky A, Wang A, Heidotting T, Irvin E, Eggerth D, Peters R, Clarke J, Cullen KL, Boldt L, Rotunda C, Grubb P
Occupational health and safety (OHS) training is an important part of managing workplace hazards and risks. However, many OHS stakeholders want to know whether training can meet the goals of decreasing workplace injuries and illness, and whether the cost of training programs can be justified. This report shares the findings of systematic review to determine whether OHS training and education programs have a beneficial effect on workers and firms.
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