Practice and potential of economic evaluation of workplace-based interventions for occupational health and safety

Background: We review economic analyses in studies of workplace-based occupational health and safety interventions in order to report on evidence of their financial merits and assess the quality of application of economic evaluation methodologies. The focus of the review is interventions applicable to an office setting. Materials and Methods: We draw on several systematic reviews to identify studies that consider both the costs and consequences of an intervention, or simply the consequences in monetary terms. Results: In total, we identified 23 studies which we included in our final synthesis. More than half of these studies considered only the consequences in monetary terms, rather than both the costs and consequences associated with the intervention. Conclusions: In reviewing the studies, we identified a number of methodological shortcomings which we discuss in detail. A key message from our review is that there is a need for economic expertise in the multidisciplinary research teams evaluating workplace-based occupational health and safety interventions.