Estimating the uninsured costs of work-related accidents, part I: a systematic review

Abstract

Background: Work-related accidents and their associated costs have been a serious concern for management, especially as statistics show that there is no clear relationship between the frequency of injuries and the costs of accidents. Methods: A systematic appraisal of available literature was conducted to identify the best approaches to the classification and estimation of insured and uninsured components of work-related accident costs. The appraisal seeks to identify meaningful components and predictors of the cost of accidents. Results: The selected publications introduced different methods to aggregate the cost of accidents but failed to provide an explanation of the relationship between the nature of accidents and their associated cost. Only three studies explored both insured and uninsured components and only four utilized incidence-based models. Conclusions: There is a need to move beyond linear ratios as predictors of the uninsured cost of accidents. An incidence-based method would best represent the nature of accidents.