Do Differences in Work Disability Duration Between Men and Women Vary by Province in Canada?

Robert A Macpherson,Mieke Koehoorn,Jonathan Fan,Benjamin C Amick,Allen Kraut,William Quirke,Christopher B Mcleod,Cameron A Mustard

doi:10.1007/s10926-018-9819-1

Abstract

Purpose Research has shown that there are important sex and gender-based differences in the work disability duration of men and women. This research is often limited to single jurisdictions, using different outcome measures, and therefore has limited generalisability of findings. This study examined if differences between work disability of men and women differed by province and by duration of work disability. Methods Cohorts of injured workers in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia (BC), Manitoba (MB) and Ontario (ON) were analysed using workers’ compensation data for work-related injuries occurring between 2007 and 2011. Work disability duration was measured using cumulative days in receipt of disability benefits paid during one-year post-injury. Poisson models with restricted cubic splines tested whether differences between men and women in the likelihood of transitioning off disability benefits varied by duration of work disability in each province, adjusting for confounders. Results Men transitioned off disability benefits faster than women for claim durations of up to two to four months, after which women transitioned off disability benefits faster until ten months. Differences between men and women were consistent across all jurisdictions. For claims longer than ten months, men transitioned off work disability benefits faster than women in BC and ON, but there were no significant differences between men and women in MB. Conclusions Differences in the work disability duration between men and women vary by province and duration of work disability. Claims management processes need to be sensitive to differences that men and women face and the timing of interventions.

Highlights

A growing body of literature has identified that there are important differences in the work disability duration of men and women, evident in different likelihoods of injured workers returning to work [1], transitioning off disability benefits [2, 3], and transitioning onto permanent disability pension [4,5,6]
It has been argued that such an approach Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation (2019) 29:560–568 more appropriately captures sex-based differences rather than gender [9, 10], prompting researchers to create indexes to measure gender based on other observable characteristics when no direct measure of gender is available [11]
This is despite the fact that, compared to sex, gender is socially constructed and its effects are potentially varying by jurisdictional context

Summary

Introduction

A growing body of literature has identified that there are important differences in the work disability duration of men and women, evident in different likelihoods of injured workers returning to work [1], transitioning off disability benefits [2, 3], and transitioning onto permanent disability pension [4,5,6]. A limitation of existing sex and gender based research on work disability has been the tendency to focus on single workers’ compensation jurisdictions, overlooking the possibility that differences between men and women may vary by jurisdiction. This is despite the fact that, compared to sex, gender is socially constructed and its effects are potentially varying by jurisdictional context. Applying a comparative approach to analysing differences in disability durations and return-to-work (RTW) between men and women offers an approach to tease apart what differences may be sex-based and what may be gender-based

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion