Claimants Out of Work More Likely to Die or Develop Serious Health Issues: Study

When workers drop out of the workforce due to a debilitating injury, they are more likely to develop serious health problems and an elevated risk of death, studies by West Virginia University researchers have shown.

“The results suggest that disability itself may impact mortality risks. If confirmed, these results reinforce the importance of return to work and other efforts to reduce disability,” reads the conclusion to one of the studies.

The studies underscore what return-to-work advocates, insurers and some staffing firms, including Florida’s Remployability, have said for years: Without regular work, some injured employs become less active, gain weight and develop secondary problems such as diabetes. Other reports have shown a link between disability time off work and increased opioid use.

In the WVU analysis, Dr. Christopher Martin, director of the WVU Occupational Medicine Residency Program, and other researchers looked at two injuries common to workers’ compensation claimants: carpal tunnel syndrome and low back pain. The researchers examined data on more than 16,000 workers.

“What we found was your overall risk of death was about 40% higher if you were disabled from those conditions than if you had the same diagnosis but were not disabled,” Martin said in a WVU news release.

“We saw specific increases in deaths from cancer and heart disease of a comparable magnitude,” Martin said. “The highest relative increases were in suicides and overdose deaths.”

Martin said the studies show the need for more awareness of the health problems associated with being out of work.

“When physicians are making decisions about whether or not someone should be working, we need to weigh the competing risks,” Martin said. “Even for non-health care people and policymakers, when we don’t mention the hazards of not working, we’re providing an incomplete picture.”

The analysis was funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.