Abstract
BackgroundBoth social and ethical arguments have been used to support preventive occupational health services (OHS). During the 1990s it became more common to support political argumentation for occupational health and safety by converting the consequences of ill health at work into monetary units. In addition, OHS has been promoted as a profitable investment for companies, and this aspect has been used by OHS providers in their marketing.Our intention was to study whether preventive occupational health services positively influence a company's economic performance.MethodsWe combined the financial statements provided by Statistics Finland and employers' reimbursement applications for occupational health services (OHS) costs to the Social Insurance Institution. The data covered the years 1997, 1999 and 2001 and over 6000 companies. We applied linear regression analysis to assess whether preventive OHS had had a positive influence on the companies' economic performance after two or four years.ResultsResources invested in preventive OHS were not positively related to a company's economic performance. In fact, the total cost of preventive OHS per turnover was negatively correlated to economic performance.ConclusionEven if OHS has no effect on the economic performance of companies, it may have other effects more specific to OHS. Therefore, we recommend that the evaluation of prevention in OHS should move towards outcome measures, such as sickness absence, disability pension and productivity, when applicable, both in occupational health service research and in practice at workplaces.
Highlights
Both social and ethical arguments have been used to support preventive occupational health services (OHS)
We recommend that the evaluation of prevention in OHS should move towards outcome measures, such as sickness absence, disability pension and productivity, when applicable, both in occupational health service research and in practice at workplaces
We examined the relationship between companies' investment in preventive OHS in 1997 and 1999 and the companies' economic performance four or two years later in 2001
Summary
Both social and ethical arguments have been used to support preventive occupational health services (OHS). During the 1990s it became more common to support political argumentation for occupational health and safety by converting the consequences of ill health at work into monetary units. Our intention was to study whether preventive occupational health services positively influence a company's economic performance. Occupational health personnel have a role in assessing the health risks at the workplace – both environmental risks and problems in the functioning of the working community They offer guidance on how to carry out interventions to improve working conditions and wellbeing at work and assist employees in maintaining their health. They carry out interventions themselves, organize groups e.g. for persons with neck problems or obesity, participate in the planning and implementation of return-to-work policies, and act as facilitators in organizational development projects [9,10]
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