Abstract
Background: Occupational diseases are under reported. Targeted education of occupational physicians (OPs) may improve their rate of reporting occupational diseases. Aim: To study the effectiveness of an active multifaceted workshop aimed at improving OPs' reporting of occupational diseases. Methods: We undertook a comparative study with 112 OPs in the intervention group and 571 OPs as comparisons. The intervention was a 1-day workshop. Measurements of occupational disease reporting activity in both groups in 6-month periods before and after the intervention were collected via the national registration system. Measurements of OPs' knowledge, self-efficacy and satisfaction were made in the intervention group. Differences between the groups and predictive factors for reporting were subsequently analysed statistically. Results: The percentage of reporting OPs after the intervention was significantly higher in the intervention group compared to the comparison group at 19 versus 11% (P <0.01). No differences were found in the average number of reported occupational diseases per reporting physician after the intervention: 3.7 (SD 5.37) versus 3.4 (SD 4.56) (not significant). The self-efficacy score was a predictive factor for reporting occupational diseases (P <0.05). Measurements of knowledge and self-efficacy increased significantly (both parameters P <0.001) and remained after half a year. Satisfaction was high (7.85 of 10). Conclusions: An active, multifaceted workshop on occupational diseases is effective in increasing the number of physicians reporting occupational diseases. Self-efficacy measures are a predictive factor for such reporting
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 373-375 |
Journal | Occupational medicine (Oxford, England) |
Volume | 58 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2008 |