EVALUATION OF AN OCCUPATIONAL-HEALTH CARE PROGRAM - NEGATIVE RESULTS,POSITIVE RESULTS OR A FAILURE

Among personnel of the city of Amsterdam the incidence of disability a s a result of musculoskeletal problems amounts to 15 per 1000 person-y ears in the refuse collecting department. A disability prevention prog ramme in accordance with literature was started to decrease this high incidence of disability. In the process-evaluation after 2 years from the start of the project it turned out that only three of the ten prev entive measures advocated were realized. These meagre results were exp lained by strategic factors such as lack of motivation among managemen t and the fact that policy on worker health protection was isolated fr om the overall company policy. Recommendations for future evaluation r esearch are given.