| Year Funded: 2011 | Budget: | Funding Agency: Institute for Work & Health (IWH), Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario |
|---|---|---|
| Title: | Matched Case-control Study: Lost-time and No-lost-time Claims (IWH Project 2175) | |
| Category: | Occupational Disease, Injury and Health Services | |
| Subcategory: | Occupational Injury | |
| Keywords: | injury, severity, workers’ compensation | |
| Link to research website: | www.iwh.on.ca | |
Issue:
Whether an injury results in time off work or not has important implications in Ontario. Recent reports have suggested that differences between lost-time claims (LTCs) and no-lost-time claims (NLTCs) have become increasingly blurred in Ontario due to the increased use of workplace accommodation, or the use of claims management practices within workplaces. A better understanding of whether NLTCs are becoming more similar to LTCs – or if there are factors outside of the injury itself that preferentially lead to no time off work being reported – have been hampered by the lack of information being electronically stored with NLTCs. This project will address this knowledge gap by matching NLTCs where detailed information has been collected, to LTCs in the WSIB administrative database.
Objectives:
The specific objectives of this project are to compare the characteristics of injuries submitted as no-lost-time claims (NLTCs) and lost-time claims (LTCs) occurring to employers of the same size and rate group in Ontario over three time periods (1996, 2000 and 2005) and to examine what characteristics of workers and workplaces are associated with an injury being a LTC versus a NLTC among similar types of injuries over three time periods (1996, 2000 and 2005).
Anticipated Results:
This research will generate new knowledge and a greater understanding of what existing and future trends in NLTCs versus LTCs demonstrate in respect to primary versus secondary prevention of workplace injuries in Ontario. It will also allow one of the first examination of whether workplace factors such as premium payments or workplace size, or individual factors such as age, occupation and job tenure, are associated with having time off work (or not) following a similar type of injury. This research will be of interest to occupational health and safety policy portfolios both at the provincial and federal levels, WSIB, other compensation agencies in Canada, the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada (AWCBC), MOL, various provincial health and safety partners such as Health and Safety Associations, as well as management and workplace parties.
Investigators:
Peter Smith(Monash University), Sheila Hogg-Johnson, Cam Mustard, Emile Tompa (Institute for Work & Health)
