Correlation Between Workers' Compensation Injuries and Depression

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Recommended: Literature review on depression in the workplace

The topic of study is workers’ compensation injuries to the knee, back, and shoulder. The specific area of interest is if there is any correlation between these specific injuries and rates of depression. Workers’ compensation injuries are significant source of injury morbidity in the United States. The costs of medical care are approximately $67 billion in direct costs for workers compensation injury and illnesses. By determining if there is a correlation between workers compensation injuries and depression it can help insurance carriers and employers mitigate costs (Asfaw & Souza, 2012). The research question for this paper is: Does a Workers’ Compensation injury to the back, neck, or shoulder cause higher rates of depression?
The first study was completed by Abay Asfaw, Ph.D. and Kerry Souza, Ph.D for the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The study mainly covered the costs associated with workers’ compensation injury and mental health treatment but was expanded to cover depression and if injured workers’ were more likely to suffer from depression than non-injured workers. Researchers used the 2005 Thomson Reuters’ MarketScan Health and Productivity Management and Commercial Claims and Encounter dataset. This database covers 48 states and used by many …show more content…

The study used 2,184 participates, ages 20 to 69. The method they used was the survey method and they used the Saskatchewan Health and Back Pain Survey. The study was to determine if a life-time history of low back injuries were associated with severity-graded low back pain and/or depressive symptoms. The results of the study indicated that there was a correlation with past occupational low back injuries and an increase in severity of subsequent low back pain but not with

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