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Work outcome in workers with occupational skin disease
Author(s) -
Holness D. Linn,
Nethercott James R.
Publication year - 1995
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.4700270605
Subject(s) - medicine , workers' compensation , compensation (psychology) , occupational disease , occupational medicine , occupational safety and health , work (physics) , disease , outcome (game theory) , occupational exposure , environmental health , psychology , mechanical engineering , mathematics , mathematical economics , pathology , psychoanalysis , engineering
We carried out a follow‐up study of employment outcome for 230 workers with a diagnosis of occupational skin disease who were at least 2 years postdiagnosis. Seventy‐eight percent of the workers were working, but 57% of those working had changed jobs, 67% because of their skin problem. Thirty‐one percent had lost no time from work because of their skin disease, while 35% had lost at least 1 month. Forty‐three percent had applied for workers' compensation benefits, and 87% of those who had applied were successful in their claims. Older workers were more likely to be unemployed and to have applied for workers' compensation benefits. Women were less likely to have lost time from work and to have applied for workers' compensation. Those who had changed their jobs tended to have a better outcome with respect to active dermatitis, though they had lost more time from work and had more often applied for workers' compensation benefits.