Citation

Brown JA, McDonough P, Mustard CA, Shannon H. Occup. Environ. Med. 2006; 63(6): 396-403.

Affiliation

McMaster University, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/oem.2005.022707

PMID

16497852

PMCID

PMC2078104

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To examine the overall healthcare and mental healthcare use of workers before and after a workplace injury. METHODS: We used an administrative database that links individual publicly funded healthcare data and Workers Compensation Board (WCB) data for the entire population of British Columbia (BC), Canada. We examined percentage change in service use for workers who required time off for their injuries (LT), relative to a year before a 1994 injury. We compared their change in use to non LT injured workers and individuals who were not injured. RESULTS: LT workers increased physician (22%), hospital, (50%), and mental healthcare (43% and 70%) use five years after the injury; a greater increase than found in the other groups. CONCLUSION: The increase in healthcare use among LT workers suggests that consequences of work injury go beyond the effects directly attributable to the injury.