Premium
Back Pain and Work Disability: The Need for a New Paradigm
Author(s) -
Johnson William G.,
Baldwin Marjorie L.,
Butler Richard J.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
industrial relations: a journal of economy and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.61
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1468-232X
pISSN - 0019-8676
DOI - 10.1111/0019-8676.691998032
Subject(s) - workers' compensation , incentive , work (physics) , compensation (psychology) , back pain , demographic economics , low back pain , sample (material) , back injury , psychology , labour economics , business , actuarial science , economics , medicine , physical therapy , social psychology , engineering , microeconomics , alternative medicine , chromatography , mechanical engineering , chemistry , pathology
Using a unique data set of workers' compensation claims from Ontario, this study analyzes the determinants of first returns to work and subsequent patterns of employment for a sample of workers with back pain and a comparison group of workers with other injuries. The results suggest that the costly and pervasive problem of work‐related back claims could be reduced by abandoning the traditional work injury model in favor of a separate paradigm for back pain that reflects its unique characteristics. A change in economic incentives would increase the probability of return to work for back cases, and an expansion of employer‐provided job accommodations would increase the probability of stable employment after the first return.