Workers’ comp could provide valuable research info
When thinking of workers’ compensation insurance, we typically think of the money and other benefits provided to workers injured on the job. When public health researchers think of this same insurance, they may also see a potential opportunity to learn more information about work-related health and safety hazards.
Recently, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) investigators and partners at Ohio State University in Columbus published three related studies aimed at understanding what kind of information workers’ compensation insurers collect, how the collection of this information could be improved, and whether the information collected could help advance occupational health and safety research. In the following, coauthor Taylor Shockey, M.P.H., an associate service fellow at NIOSH, explains the studies and their results.