Illness/injury prevention
IWH has a long history of conducting research to provide practical guidance to employers, workers, OHS professionals and regulators about what works and what doesn’t in injury or illness prevention. This research targets the injury and illness prevention practices of workplaces, as well as the programs developed by governments, health and safety associations and others to support and motivate workplaces to adopt effective practices.
Featured
IWH Speaker Series
New business owners on why and how OHS starts to matter
Published: October 27, 2026
Research Highlights
Rises in opioid harms highest in machining, construction, sales
A new study has found that opioid harm rates have increased among injured workers over the last two decades. The study also breaks the trends down by occupation.
Published: October 14, 2026
IWH in the media
External factors influence improvements in workplace safety performance: IWH study
When workplaces make large improvements in occupational health and safety (OHS), it seems some type of external influence helps bring three internal factors into play: an organizational motivation to take action in OHS, the introduction of new OHS knowledge, and an engaged health and safety champion who integrates that knowledge into the organization.
Published: Canadian Chiropractor, March 2016
Journal article
Journal article
Individual, occupational, and workplace correlates of occupational health and safety vulnerability in a sample of Canadian workers
Published: American Journal of Industrial Medicine, January 2016
Journal article
Journal article
Effectiveness of workplace interventions in the prevention of upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders and symptoms: an update of the evidence
Published: Occupational and Environmental Medicine, January 2016
Project
Project
Central nervous system agents and the risk of workplace injury and death: a systematic review
IWH is leading a systematic review to determine the level and quality of research evidence on the association between workers’ use of agents that act on the central nervous system (e.g. opioids, cannabis) and the risk of workplace injury, reinjury, near misses and death, including outcomes affecting co-workers and others in the immediate workplace.
Status: Completed 2019
Tools and guides
IWH Organizational Performance Metric
This evidence-based, eight-item questionnaire helps organizations assess and improve their health and safety performance by indicating where improvements might be made to health and safety policies and practices in order to prevent injuries or illnesses from occurring.
Published: January 2016
Project
Project
Implementation of workplace violence legislation in Ontario hospitals
IWH researchers sought to find out what helps and what hinders the successful implementation of legislated workplace violence prevention measures in Ontario’s acute-care hospitals.
Status: Completed 2017
Project
Project
Determinants of health and safety in unionized and non-unionized firms in Ontario’s construction sector
According to previous findings from IWH, unionized construction firms have fewer lost-time, critical and musculoskeletal workers’ compensation claims than non-unionized ones. Do differing workplace policies and practices in unionized firms account for this. An IWH team sought to answer the question.
Status: Completed 2017
Tools and guides
OHS Vulnerability Measure
This tool assesses the extent to which a worker may be vulnerable to occupational health and safety (OHS) risks at work in four areas: hazard exposure; workplace policies and procedures; worker awareness of hazards and OHS rights and responsibilities; and worker empowerment to participate in injury and illness prevention.
Published: January 2016
Project
Project
Evaluating the implementation of a participatory organizational change intervention in long-term care
The Public Services Health & Safety Association’s EPIC (Employees Participating in Change) program aims to reduce musculoskeletal disorders and slip, trip and fall injuries in the long-term care sector. IWH is evaluating the implementation and effects of this organizational-level participatory ergonomics program.
Status: Completed 2019
Project
Project
Incidence of work-related aggression and violence in Canada
To effectively deal with workplace violence in Canada, we need to know how often it occurs, who is at highest risk, and if risk differs depending on work context or time of day. This project helped find these answers.
Status: Completed 2017