1. Anil Adisesh, Dalhousie University (Halifax)
“Work and health in primary care in Ontario: improving the recognition and recording of work relatedness”
$185,300 over two years
Dr. Anil Adisesh, Associate Professor, Dalhousie University
Project summary
The recording of occupational information by primary care practitioners (PCPs) is poor and may lead to under recognition of work-related health conditions, a barrier to giving return to work advice, and a disconnect between the WSIB and PCPs. There are currently no streamlined and data-linked systems in place for PCPs to collect occupational information from their patients; thus, the research team will be developing and piloting an automated questionnaire for patients to complete in primary care offices. This project aims to make occupational information from patients available to their PCPs at the point of care, and aggregated data to be linked to provincial datasets, facilitating the study of the interaction of health and work.
2. Emily King, VHA Home HealthCare (Toronto)
“Occupational hand dermatitis e-learning adaptation and evaluation for the food services sector”
$139,217.28 over two years
Dr. Emily King, Director of Research, VHA Home HealthCare
Project summary
Workers throughout the food services industry are at high risk of occupational hand dermatitis (rashes and other problems with the skin on their hands) because they engage extensively in wet work - working in gloves and/or with wet hands for long periods and frequent handwashing. Severe hand dermatitis has strong negative impacts on workers' quality of life and can prevent them from working. With an understanding of risk factors, good skin care practices, self-screening, and early intervention the occurrence and impacts of occupational hand dermatitis can be limited. The aim will be to develop and evaluate free, on-line training and informational workplace posters tailored to the experiences of food services and manufacturing workers to teach and promote the above.
3. Tracy Kirkham, Ontario Health (Toronto)
“Evaluating co-exposures to estimate occupational disease risk in the ODSS”
$268,083.36 over two years
Dr. Tracy Kirkham, Associate Director and Senior Scientist, Ontario Health
Project summary
In Canada, workplace exposures are an important cause of disease. Often research measures the risk of disease from exposure to only one hazard (for example silica exposure and lung cancer risk); however, there may be multiple hazards that can cause a specific disease (for example silica, radon, asbestos, diesel exhaust exposures all cause lung cancer risk). If workers are exposed to more than one of these hazards during their work (co-exposure), their risk of developing disease may increase. Studies that do not consider these co-exposures may underestimate the risk of disease. We aim to measure how much the risk of cancer increases when considering co-exposures compared to when only considering one exposure for a priority cancer among Ontario workers.
4. Lynda Robson, Institute for Work & Health (Toronto)
“Understanding how new businesses start managing OHS: laying the groundwork for future interventions”
$269,550.68 over two years
Dr. Lynda Robson, Scientist, Institute for Work & Health
Project summary
About 100,000 new businesses (NBs) with one or more employees are created each year in Canada, representing almost 10% of existing businesses. For effective primary prevention of avoidable incidents, and to most effectively integrate OHS into its operations and nascent culture, NBs need to start managing OHS by the time they hire their first employee. Since NBs usually need external expertise to support the initiation of OHS management, it is critical that the OHS prevention system in Ontario reach and support NBs early in their lifecycle. Yet NBs have not been a target of the Ontario OHS system until just recently and seldom have been a focus of OHS research. This proposal will address that gap.
5. Jeavana Sritharan, Ontario Health (Toronto)
“Enhancing the Occupational Disease Surveillance System through mortality surveillance”
$269,472 over two years
Dr. Jeavana Sritharan, Scientist, Ontario Health
Project summary
Surveillance data on mortality among workers are vital for preventing and compensating occupational diseases and illnesses. In Ontario, however, there are currently no surveillance systems that concurrently capture occupation and mortality information. The Occupational Disease Surveillance System (ODSS), which has achieved considerable success in identifying occupational risks of malignant and non-malignant outcomes, can be leveraged to fill this important gap through the linkage of two readily-available mortality datasets housed at Ontario Health. Our aim is to enhance the ODSS by integrating mortality data to better understand the risk of work-related fatal health outcomes and trends among Ontario workers.
6. Michael Sullivan, McGill University (Montreal)
“Feasibility and acceptability of an evidence-informed brief virtual intervention to reduce perceptions of injustice following work injury”
$187,290.80 over two years
Dr. Michael Sullivan, Professor, McGill University
Project summary
Many individuals who have sustained disabling injuries in the workplace react to their situation with a sense of ‘injustice’. Research over the past 20 years has revealed that, interpreting one’s post-injury life situation as ‘unjust’, actually interferes with recovery from the disabling injury. Post-injury perceptions of injustice contribute to more severe pain, more severe symptoms of depression and PTSD, and more prolonged absence from work. Several clinical researchers have highlighted the need to develop approaches to treatment that can reduce post-injury perceptions of injustice. The proposed research will assess the feasibility of the already developed Managing Post-Injury Challenges’ (MPIC) rehabilitation intervention.
7. Dwayne Van Eerd, Institute for Work & Health (Toronto)
“Implementation of a comprehensive accommodation and reintegration program in a police service”
$270,000 over two years
Dr. Dwayne Van Eerd, Scientist, Institute for Work & Health
Project summary
Police service members face hazardous work that impacts their physical and psychological health, and that can make support, accommodation, and reintegration to their job duties challenging. To address these challenges, police services develop programs and practices to reduce work disability. However, little research has been done to understand the implementation process of these programs within police services. The objective of this project is to evaluate the implementation process of a recently developed accommodation and reintegration program in the Toronto Police Service, with the ultimate goal of improving the participation and well-being of police officers through improved implementation practices that can be adapted, shared, and scaled out to benefit other Ontario police services.
8. Amin Yazdani, Conestoga College (Cambridge)
“Ontario skilled trades anthropometric database for the inclusive design of PPE and assistive technologies (Pilot study)”
$257,180 over two years
Dr. Amin Yazdani, Executive Director, Conestoga College
Project summary
Strength-augmenting passive exoskeletons are perceived to reduce injurious work-related risks. However, existing exoskeletons, and other personal protective equipment (PPE), are based on outdated anthropometric data that do not reflect the increasingly diverse Canadian workforce. The lack of Canadian population-specific anthropometric data has limited the effectiveness, functionality, and practicality of exoskeletons and other PPE and has ultimately impacted their adoption and implementation in the skilled trades. Ill-fitting exoskeletons and PPE may create safety hazards and is a significant barrier that underrepresented groups (e.g., women, newcomers, aging population) continue to face in entering and prospering in the skilled trades. Through this WSIB-funded research, the aim is to understand the needs and requirements of skilled trades workers and product designers and develop a comprehensive anthropometric database, reflecting Canada’s diverse skilled trades workforce, to support the inclusive design of exoskeletons and PPE.