WORK-RELATED INTERVENTIONS DURING OFFICE VISITS TO OCCUPATIONAL-HEALTH PHYSICIANS

Background. Systematically applied work-related interventions during v isits to occupational health (OH) physicians support the preventive an d health promotive goals of OH. The proportion of the visits including a work-related intervention was analyzed according to patient, health problem, and physician determinants in a sample of visits to OH physi cians in Finland. Methods. A cross-sectional study was carried out amo ng 55 Occupational Health Services (OHS) units. Office encounters with 4,404 male and 5,373 female employed patients ages 18-64 years, recor ded by 114 OHS physicians, were analyzed. Results. Altogether 856 (8.8 %) encounters included a work-related intervention. The work-related i nterventions were distributed across all the main disease categories, the majority of which were musculoskeletal diseases. Of the patient de terminants, occupational group (the residual group of non-white-collar or nonblue-collar workers) associated positively with a work-related intervention, while age or gender did not. The physician's female gend er and experience associated positively with work-related intervention s. Work-related interventions took place more often in integrated and joint model OHS than in municipal health care centers and private medi cal centers. Conclusions. Work-related interventions are used by OH ph ysicians for diverse health problems. More research is needed to bette r understand the reasons for the observed differences in work-related interventions. Also, research is needed to evaluate the efficiency of such interventions. (C) 1997 Academic Press.