FOCUS
Economic Dimension of Occupational Safety and Health
January 2009
Occupational Safety and Health is at the heart of economics. It is generally assumed that a healthy workforce in safe workplaces is more productive and uses less social and health care expenses. This is even more important in Europe with an ageing workforce. Therefore, the European Union (EU) has granted a subsidy for a concerted action on the economic dimension of occupational health and safety as part of its seventh research framework programme.
The aim of ECOSH www.ecosh.eu is to bring together researchers, employers, unions, policymakers and other stakeholders.
In three workshops they will discuss new and innovative ways of using economics for occupational safety and health.
Workshops will be prepared by a group of experts in the area. The following workshops will be organised:
- The impact of OSH and OSH interventions on company performance
Helsinki, Finland, 23 and 24 January 2009
www.ttl.fi/partner/ecosh/workshop_one - Economic evaluation of OSH interventions
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 17 and 18 September 2009
www.ttl.fi/partner/ecosh/worksop_two - Economic incentives for the uptake of OSH measures
Lodz, Poland, 27 and 28 November 2009
www.ttl.fi/partner/ecosh/workshop_three
There will be a limited number of places available for the various stakeholders.
For registration and further information go to www.ecosh.eu or email: marjo.pulliainen@ttl.fi
Cochrane Occupational Health Field
Electronic news bulletin of the Cochrane Occupational Health Field December 2008 has been published.
Contents include:
- All Cochrane systematic reviews now listed according to topic (i.e. review group or field)
- Workshop on productivity in Helsinki in January 2009
- Basic course on how to conduct Cochrane reviews in Helsinki in March 2009
- Current status of the COHF reference databases
- Increased number of news bulletin issues
1. All Cochrane systematic reviews now listed according to topic
The listing of reviews by topic is still ongoing in the Cochrane Library. On the Cochrane Collaboration's web pages however you can access summaries of all reviews listed according to topic, i.e. by review groups or by fields. The Cochrane Occupational Health Field also maintains its own up-to-date list of reviews listed according to production phase (title, protocol, or review). For all reviews have a look at: www.cochrane.org/reviews/en/topics/118_reviews.html
2. For occupational health and safety intervention titles, protocols and reviews
See: www.cohf.fi
3. Course on basic Cochrane reviewers' skills will be held on the 12th and 13th of March 2009.
This is an introductory course on how to conduct Cochrane reviews, in Helsinki, Finland. The course covers both the structure as well as the process common to all Cochrane reviews of intervention studies. We will especially highlight:
- systematic searching of studies in electronic databases,
- study inclusion,
- data extraction and management, and
- the pooling of results.
The course fee is 400 euros, which covers all materials, lunches and coffee/tea during the course. We can also help in reserving accommodation.
The full program and details of registration will soon go up on our web pages at: www.cohf.fi
4. Current status of the COHF reference databases
There are presently 1216 references of occupational health and safety intervention studies (1060 original research studies and 156 reviews) in our database. We have separated studies that have employed a reasonably high quality methodology (randomised controlled trials, controlled clinical trials, and interrupted time-series) from less rigorous studies (uncontrolled before-after measurement only). The adequately rigorous EBM studies can be used to facilitate decisions in patient care and policy-making. The BA studies should only be used for hypothesis generation, learning about efficacy, understanding the limitations of generalizability, and gaining additional knowledge about a particular intervention. The BA studies should NOT be used to draw inferences about effectiveness.
We currently have 550 references of EBM studies and 510 references of BA studies.
If you haven't already used the database, it is accessible free of charge through our website at www.cohf.fi after a short registration procedure. There is also a user manual provided at the website. Remember that we provide only reference data and not full text articles because of copyrights reasons. We do however categorise the studies according to study type and outcomes measured so that you can look, for example, for RCTs about back pain (search: rct-study/All non-indexed text fields AND "back pain" All indexed text fields). There are currently 35 of those.
All references gathered from MEDLINE are linked to PubMed where some, but not all, have a link to full text versions. If you have trouble with accessing our database then please do not hesitate to let us know. We will always do our best to effect a rapid remedy.
5. Increased number of news bulletin issues
Due to popular demand we have decided to increase the pace in which we send out new issues. In 2009 we aim to publish altogether six issues. We thank you for your continued interest.
If you would like to inform the recipients of this newsletter about important matters (e.g. conferences, publications, job vacancies, etc.) please submit your items to the editor at: COHFnewsbulletin@ttl.fi and include "COHF Newsletter" on the subject line.
Unless you request otherwise, your submissions to the COHF Newsletter may be duplicated in other regular Cochrane Collaboration news channels such as Cochrane News and the Cochrane Collaboration website, at the discretion of the editors. Please consider the environment before printing this newsletter.
Jani Ruotsalainen, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Cochrane Occupational Health Field, Neulaniementie 4 PO Box 93, FI-70701 Kuopio, FINLAND | Tel: +358 30 474 7334 | Fax: +358 30 474 7221 | Email: jani.ruotsalainen@ttl.fi | www.cohf.fi