How much do workers' health examinations add to health and safety at the workplace? Occupational preventive usefulness of routine health examinations = ¿Qué aportan los exámenes de salud a la seguridad y salud en el trabajo? Utilidad preventiva ocupacional de los exámenes de salud rutinarios
dc.contributor.author
dc.date.accessioned
2019-04-23T07:04:33Z
dc.date.available
2019-04-23T07:04:33Z
dc.date.issued
2015-07-01
dc.identifier.issn
0213-9111
dc.identifier.uri
dc.description.abstract
Despite no evidence in favour, routine workers' health examinations, mostly pre-employment and periodic, are extensively performed worldwide with important allocation of resources. In Spain they are performed within a theoretical job-specific health surveillance system. Our objective was to ascertain their occupational preventive usefulness from the perspective of occupational health professionals. Methods: Cross sectional study. Online survey addressed to all physicians and nurses members of the Catalan Society of Safety and Occupational Medicine (n=539) in 2011. Univariate and bivariate analyses of prevalence and prevalence differences of answers. Results: Response rate 53% (n=285). According to more than 70% of respondents the health surveillance system isn't cost-effective, doesn't meet the goal of early detection of health damage related to work, and doesn't contribute to improve the occupational risk prevention system. Further deficiencies were identified regarding specificity and scientific basis for health examinations, quality of collective health surveillance and referral of suspected cases to mutual insurance companies for diagnosis and treatment. Bivariate analysis showed a significantly more negative opinion for several items amongst physicians (versus nurses) and amongst professionals working in external prevention services (versus internal services). Conclusions: This study raises serious concerns about how health examinations are performed within our workers' health surveillance system, which should be reviewed to ensure the fulfilment of its occupational preventive objective. Our results might encourage other countries with similar practices to assess them in order to assure their fitness for purpose
dc.format.mimetype
application/pdf
dc.language.iso
eng
dc.publisher
Elsevier
dc.relation.isformatof
Reproducció digital del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaceta.2014.11.001
dc.relation.ispartof
Gaceta Sanitaria, 2015, vol. 29, núm. 4, p. 266-273
dc.relation.ispartofseries
Articles publicats (D-CM)
dc.rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
dc.rights.uri
dc.title
How much do workers' health examinations add to health and safety at the workplace? Occupational preventive usefulness of routine health examinations = ¿Qué aportan los exámenes de salud a la seguridad y salud en el trabajo? Utilidad preventiva ocupacional de los exámenes de salud rutinarios
dc.type
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.rights.accessRights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.type.version
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.identifier.doi
dc.type.peerreviewed
peer-reviewed
dc.identifier.eissn
1578-1283