Partnership news

February 2022: PhD student Kimberly Sharpe developed a framework that identifies predisposing, enabling, workplace environment and need-based factors that could lead to variation in health care spending and use across regions, offering a guide for researchers and policymakers to identify areas for improvement in health care delivery within work disability management systems. Read more in Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation.

January 2022: Using WorkSafeBC and Statistics Canada data for 2010-2017, we found that workers from out of province had lower workers’ compensation claim rates than those from within province, even after adjusting for sex, age, industry and year. Differences were largest among health care only claims and smallest among serious injury claims. Read more in American Journal of Industrial Medicine.

January 2022: We examined differences in work disability duration by firm size using data from five Canadian and five Australian workers’ compensation systems. Compared to large firms (200+ FTEs), workers in small firms (<20 FTEs) had longer work disability duration in all but one of the study jurisdictions, even after adjusting for a range of individual-level characteristics. Read more in Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation.

December 2021: Published in Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health, this study examined the effectiveness of an integrated return-to-work (RTW) and vocational rehabilitation (VR) program on cumulative disability days paid to injured workers in the construction sector in Ontario. Findings suggest that the program reduced cumulative disability days paid to all claims but particularly long-duration claims referred to RTW specialists and short-duration claims referred to VR specialists.

December 2021: The results of graduate trainee Niloufar Saffari’s thesis work are published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Using a novel linkage of BC workers’ compensation claims and permanent resident data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Saffari et al found that both recent and established immigrants in BC experience more days of disability after work injury than Canadian-born workers.

November 2021: WorkSafeBC is seeking applicants for Research Training Awards, available to highly-qualified graduate students at the master’s and doctoral level, and for the Ralph McGinn Postdoctoral Fellowship competitions. These awards are designed to foster the development of occupational health and safety research expertise in BC.

November 2021: PWHS Co-Director Chris McLeod spoke about workplace health and safety with Rob Cook, VP of Health and Safety at the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario, at a Celebration of Health and Safety on Nov. 25, 2021. Watch the recording (starts at 9:20).

November 2021: PWHS Co-director Chris McLeod and Leah Thomas-Olson, Client Partner – Ergonomics, Health and Safety, Fraser Health, will present on the health and productivity effects of working from home for Fraser Health employees at the UBC School of Population and Public Health OEH seminar on Friday Nov. 26 at 12:30 PST. More details

November 2021: PWHS postdoctoral fellow Dr. Sonja Senthanar and colleagues examined differences in disability duration after a work injury among immigrants compared to Canadian-born workers and found inequities in disability duration for immigrant workers, particularly economic and family class and women immigrants.

October 2021: PWHS co-leads Mieke Koehoorn and Chris McLeod are giving a series of presentations on gender/sex differences in workers’ compensation, and differences in disability duration after work injury for immigrant workers, by firm size, and in the construction industry, at the 28th International Symposium on Epidemiology in Occupational Health (EPICOH) conference, October 25-28.

September 2021: The Institute for Work & Health Speaker Series will present results from a study on the nature and extent of claim suppression in BC on Sept 28 at 8am PDT. Register here.

September 2021: PWHS postdoctoral fellow and WorkSafeBC fellowship awardee Sonja Senthanar talks about her research into worker’s compensation and immigrant working conditions in Canadian Occupational Safety magazine.

September 2021: The MSFHR Research Trainee Program supports health researchers in the training phase of their research career to enable career development and the long-term success of the BC health research landscape. PWHS post doctoral fellow Sonja Senthanar is a 2021 recipient for her project, entitled Immigrants, work and health: Evaluation of services to reduce inequities.

July 2021: PWHS postdoctoral fellow Sonja Senthanar and undergraduate researcher Michelle Chen used Statistics Canada survey data to examine whether workers feel safe returning to work, the reasons for their fears/concerns, and their safety preferences for returning to work by immigration status and by sex/gender, where possible.

July 2021: From Sept 20-23, 2021 the prevention community will come together to address this global priority at the XXII World Congress on Safety and Health at Work. The completely online, digital event offers world-class speakers, inspiring experiences, elevated networking, premium content, and access to global leaders. Early bird registration has been extended to July 26, 2021.