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A systematic literature review of the effectiveness of occupational health and safety regulatory enforcement
Author(s) -
Tompa Emile,
Kalcevich Christina,
Foley Michael,
McLeod Chris,
HoggJohnson Sheilah,
Cullen Kim,
MacEachen Ellen,
Mahood Quenby,
Irvin Emma
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/ajim.22605
Subject(s) - medicine , legislation , enforcement , occupational safety and health , systematic review , incentive , legislature , evidence based practice , compliance (psychology) , environmental health , evidence based medicine , public economics , public relations , medline , alternative medicine , psychology , political science , law , social psychology , pathology , economics , microeconomics
Background We aimed to determine the strength of evidence on the effectiveness of legislative and regulatory policy levers in creating incentives for organizations to improve occupational health and safety processes and outcomes. Methods A systematic review was undertaken to assess the strength of evidence on the effectiveness of specific policy levers using a “best‐evidence” synthesis approach. Results A structured literature search identified 11,947 citations from 13 peer‐reviewed literature databases. Forty‐three studies were retained for synthesis. Strong evidence was identified for three out of nine clusters. Conclusions There is strong evidence that several OHS policy levers are effective in terms of reducing injuries and/or increasing compliance with legislation. This study adds to the evidence on OHS regulatory effectiveness from an earlier review. In addition to new evidence supporting previous study findings, it included new categories of evidence–compliance as an outcome, nature of enforcement, awareness campaigns, and smoke‐free workplace legislation. Am. J. Ind. Med. 59:919–933, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.