Relationship between health services outcomes and social and economic outcomes in workplace injury and disease: Data sources and methods

Background Understanding the mediating role of health care in mitigating so cial, economic and occupational role disability is a complex task. Results No single method of research will be successful in addressing all e lements of this NORA research priority area. In this paper, we argue that r esearch methods are needed which have the following components: (1) the det ailed measurement of therapeutic intervention and the impacts of this inter vention on clinical and functional health status using study designs which rule out competing explanations, (2) a longitudinal follow-up component whi ch measures social, economic, and occupational role function following the conclusion of therapy, and (3) a commitment to execute studies across multi ple settings to observe the variations in health care and in social and occ upational role function that arise as a result of differences in labor mark et factors and employer and government policies. Conclusions More comprehensive portraits of the longitudinal trajectory of individual workers, social, economic and occupational role function followi ng an occupational injury or illness will have significance for a large num ber of policy sectors. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.