ABSTRACT
Job-related injury and illness is a common source of disability and hardship among the U.S. adult population. Each year more than 5 million Americans report workplace injuries and illnesses (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2002). The annual direct and indirect costs of these conditions are estimated at $155 billion, far exceeding the costs associated with AIDS and Alzheimer’s disease and roughly comparable to costs for cancer and coronary heart disease (CHD) in the United States (Leigh, Markowitz, Fahs, & Landrigan, 2000). Medical care and wage-replacement benefits for workplace injuries and illnesses are generally provided under state-regulated workers’ compensation insurance plans, which cover 98% of the American workforce (Thompson, Reno, Mont, Burton, & Thomason, 2002). However, authorities believe that many occupational injuries and illnesses are not reported to or accepted by workers’ compensation insurers, and that workers’ compensation claims data, therefore, underestimate the true extent of the problem (Azaroff, Levenstein, & Wegman, 2002).
