The impact of work disability
The impacts affect different spheres, both economically and in terms of human resources. They demonstrate the importance of devoting efforts and resources.
WHO is this section intended for?
To all those involved in the return to work process.
Why consult this section
To find out more about :
- the extent of disability and the frequency of occupational injuries in Québec and Canada as a whole;
- the overall costs of occupational injuries with disability in Quebec (medical expenses, indermnities of various kinds, lost productivity and human costs);
- the impact of disability on workers and their families;
- the importance of investing efforts and resources.
What is this section about?
Essentially, the impacts of work disability from different perspectives, as in these examples:
- 20.4% of the global population and 36.8% of the Canadian population had an MSD during 2019. For MSDs, depression and anxiety affected 3.8% and 4.1% of the global population, respectively; the numbers are 3.7% and 5.0% in Canada.
- The prolonged disability associated with MSDs and CMDs can result in significant costs to society, but also difficulties for the worker, the workplace and the insurer:
- Impacts on workers: increased emotional and/or psychological distress and uncertainty about the future; negative effects on self-esteem; misunderstanding or prejudice from those around them; isolation and exclusion.
- Impacts on the work environment: reorganization of teams, which may affect working relationships.
- Economic impacts: both for the worker concerned (and his family) and for the employer who absorbs the costs of compensation and lost productivity.
WHEN is this information useful?
When you want to learn about this OHS issue in terms of occupational rehabilitation .
HOW can this information be used (applications)?
- As an awareness-raising tool;
- As arguments for the participation of certain actors;
- Within the framework of training on work disability
Introduction and objectives
The impacts of work disability are significant. They are measured in terms of costs, loss of productivity for the company and loss of autonomy (financial, mobility) for the workers (Brown, Shannon, Mustard and McDonough, 2007). In advanced industrial societies where paid work is important in terms of source of income, but also in terms of identity and social roles, the inability to perform a job can have major consequences on identity and self-esteem, as well as on the perception that others have of our disability situation (Coutu, Côté and Baril, 2013).
General objective
To raise users awareness on the prevention of work disability and the importance of devoting effort and resources to promote a healthy and sustainable return to work (RTW).
Specific objectives
- Compare the prevalence of disability at the global, Canadian and Quebec levels;
- To describe the frequency and severity of occupational injuries with disability in Quebec;
- Produce an estimate of the overall costs of occupational injuries with disability in Quebec (medical expenses, lost productivity and human costs);
- Describe the impacts of disability on workers and their families.
Elements of methodology
The content of this section is based on a methodological approach that includes, for the epidemiological component, the extraction of data from the:
- Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail ( CNESST) (2015-2016);
- Canadian Survey on Disability (2017);
- Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey (2020);
- Global Burden of Disease (GBD, 2019).
It also includes consultation of statistical reports produced by the IRSST.
The component dealing with the impacts on the worker was documented from a synthesis published in the Handbook of Work Disability: Prevention and Management (Coutu et al., 2013) and a mapping review (Grant and Booth, 2009) on the impact of disability on workers.