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 These reports are not peer-reviewed, although they often form the basis of peer-reviewed journal articles that are later published.

Managing depression in the workplace: a systematic review contextualized for Manitoba

Irvin E, Cullen KL, Van Eerd D, Saunders R, Johnson L, Bornstein S, Butt A
This report provides a synthesis of the relevant research-based evidence on managing depression for the adult working population of Manitoba. The synthesis is based on an international search of the literature, and the findings were then contexualized for Manitoba based on an approach developed by the Institute for Work & Health and Memorial University's SafetyNet Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Research.
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Effective workplace-based return-to-work interventions: a systematic review update

Cullen KL, Irvin E, Gensby U, Jennings P, Hogg-Johnson S, Kristman VL, Laberge M, McKenzie D, Newnam S, Shourie S, Steenstra I, Van Eerd D, Amick B
This report synthesizes the evidence from a systematic review on the effectiveness of workplace-based return-to-work interventions and updates the Institute's 2004 systematic review on the same subject. This update brings in evidence published since 2004, and expands upon the original systematic review by including work absences due not only to musculoskeletal disorders, but also to mental health and pain-related conditions.
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Auditing the internal responsibility system in Ontario's mining industry

Mustard C, Lay M, Landsman V
IWH, in collaboration with Workplace Safety North, piloted a workplace questionnaire to measure perceptions of practices related to the internal responsibility system in Ontario's mining sector. This February 2017 presentation provides an overview of the development of the instrument, called the Internal Responsibility System Climate Assessment and Audit Tool (IRS CAAT), and the psychometric analysis of that instrument at four mining operations.
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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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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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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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