Realising the Health Benefits of Work Media Pack 2011

The Faculty invites you to promote our Consensus Statement

Please distribute the following Health Benefits of Work information pack. The Faculty continues to grow the signatory list and welcomes your support. We encourage you to distribute this pack widely and add it to your own website.

If you have any queries please email us at afoem@racp.edu.au

Below, we outline some of the key evidence regarding the health benefits of work.

The evidence
The longer a person is away from work, the less likely they are ever to return.  Yet in Australia sickness certificates ‘are being issued more frequently, and the level of work disability attributed to commonly occurring conditions is on the rise’.(1)

Not all work is good for all people; and work must be safe. With these provisos, Realising the Health Benefits of Work shows that in most cases an early return to work (or remaining at work) is beneficial for health and wellbeing, (2-13)  and that people with musculoskeletal conditions who are helped to return to work enjoy better health than those who remain off work.(14, 15)

Suitable work has also been shown to benefit people suffering from a wide range of psychiatric conditions including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorders and schizophrenia. The potential negative impacts of work on mental health  (16, 17)  must be balanced against awareness that unemployment may also have serious consequences for mental health.(18-22)

“Long-term worklessness,” Professor Sir Mansel Aylward said during his recent visit to Australasia, “is one of the greatest known risks to Public Health. It has a health risk equivalent to that of smoking ten packs of cigarettes per day.(23)   After six months out of work, the suicide rate in young men is increased forty times.(24)  For longer term worklessness, the general suicide rate is increased six times.(25)  Worklessness has a health risk and life expectancy reduction greater than many “killer diseases”.(26). And worklessness is actually riskier than most dangerous jobs, including construction and working on the North Sea (27).”

The health risks associated with long term work absence and unemployment are large; so too are the potential benefits of an evidence-based paradigm shift.

References

1. Dunstan D. Are sickness certificates doing our patients harm. Aust Fam Physician 2009;38:61-3

2. Abenhaim L, Rossignol M, Valat J-P, et al. The Role of Activity in the Therapeutic Management of Back Pain: Report of the International Paris Task Force on Back Pain. Spine 2000;25:1S-33S.

3. Waddell G, Burton A, Bartys S. Concepts of rehabilitation for the management of common health problems - evidence base. Project Report; 2004.

4. Helliwell P, Taylor W. Repetitive strain injury. Postgraduate Medical Journal 2004;80:438-43.

5. de Buck P, Schoones J, Allaire S, Vliet Vlieland T. Vocational rehabilitation in patients with chronic rheumatic diseases: A systematic literature review. Seminars in arthritis and rheumatism 2002;32:196-203.

6. Staal J, Hlobil H, van Tulder M, et al. Occupational health guidelines for the management of low back pain: an international comparison. Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2003;60:618-26.

7. Schonstein E, Kenny D, Keating J, Koes B. Work conditioning, work hardening and functional restoration for workers with back and neck pain. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2003:CD001822.

8. COST B13 Working Group. Low back pain: guidelines for its management: European Commission; 2004.

9. Cairns R, Hotopf M. A systematic review describing the prognosis of chronic fatigue syndrome. Occup Med (Lond) 2005;55:20-31.

10. Fordyce W. Back pain in the workplace: management of disability in nonspecific conditions - a report of the Task Force on Pain in the Workplace of the International Association for the Study of Pain. Seattle: IASP Press; 1995.

11. Frank J, Brooker A, DeMaio S, et al. Disability resulting from occupational low back pain: Part II: what do we know about secondary prevention? a review of the scientific evidence on prevention after disability begins. Spine 1996;21.

12. Carter T, Birrell N. Occupational health guidelines for the management of low back pain at work - principal recommendations. London: Faculty of Occupational Medicine; 2000.

13. Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance. Standards of care. London: Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance; 2004.

14. Lãtters F, Hogg-Johnson S, Burdorf A, Lotters F, Hogg-Johnson S, Burdorf A. Health status, its perceptions, and effect on return to work and recurrent sick leave. Spine 2005;30:1086-92.

15. Westman A, Linton S, Theorell T, Ohrvik J, Wahlen P, Leppert J. Quality of life and maintenance of improvements after early multimodal rehabilitation: a 5-year follow-up. Disability & Rehabilitation 2006;28:437-46.

16. LaMontagne A, Keegel T, Vallance D, Ostry A, Wolfe R. Job strain - attributable depression in a sample of working Australians: assessing the contribution to health inequalities. BMC Public Health 2008;8:181.

17. Levi L, Bartley M, Marmot M, et al. Stressors at the workplace: theoretical models. Occup Med 2000;15:69-106.

18. Merz M, Bricout J, Koch L. Disability and job stress: Implications for vocational rehabilitation planning. Work 2001;17:85-95.

19. Ursin H. Sensitization, Somatization, and Subjective Health Complaints. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine 1997;4:105 - 16.

20. Glozier N. Mental ill health and fitness for work. Occup Environ Med 2002;59:714-20.

21. Mattiasson I, Lindgarde F, Nilsson J, Theorell T. Threat of unemployment and cardiovascular risk factors: longitudinal study of quality of sleep and serum cholesterol concentrations in men threatened with redundancy. BMJ 1990;301:461-6.

22. Seymour L, Grove B. Workplace interventions for people with common mental health problems: evidence review and recommendations. London: British Occupational Health Research Foundation; 2005.

23. Ross. J. Where do real dangers lie? Smithsonian 1995;8:42-53.

24. Wessely. S, Holland-Elliot. K. "Mental health issues" in "What about the workers? Proceedings of an RSM Symposium" London: Royal Society of Medicine Press; 2004.

25. Bartley. M, Sacker. A, Schoon. I, Kelly. M, Carmona. C. Work, non-work, job satisfaction and psychological health: evidence review: Health Development Agency; 2005.

26. Aylward. M, Waddell. G. The Scientific and Conceptual Basis of Incapacity Benefits. The Stationary Office 2005.

27. Aylward. M. No one written off: Reforming welfare to reward responsibility. In: Consultation Event DWP Welfare Reform Green Paper Cardiff; 2008; 2008.