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The Work Disability Paradigm and Its Public Health Implications

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Handbook of Work Disability

Abstract

Work is central in people’s lives and well-being and positively impacts the physical, mental, financial and social health of individuals and communities. Work disability occurs when a worker is unable to stay at work or return to work because of an injury or disease. However, work disability results mainly from personal, workplace, societal, compensation and healthcare determinants, whatever the disorder at the start of the work disability process. This has been coined as the Work disability Paradigm. Due to these multiple systemic work disability determinants, reduction of work disability cannot result from interventions only aimed at the work-disabled workers. Instead, it is argued that public health actions addressed towards the stakeholders, the decision makers and the public are needed to influence the systems responsible for work disability.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, 155 College Street, 6th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5T 3M7, Canada

    Patrick Loisel

  2. Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Patrick Loisel

  3. Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), 2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, ON, L1H 7K4, Canada

    Pierre Côté

  4. UOIT-CMCC Centre for the Study of Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation, University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Ontario, ON, Canada

    Pierre Côté

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  1. Patrick Loisel
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Correspondence to Patrick Loisel .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Toronto, College Street 155, Toronto, M5T 3M7, Ontario, Canada

    Patrick Loisel

  2. EMGO Institute for Health and Care Resea, Department of Public and Occupational He, VU University Medical Center, AMC-UMCG-UWV-VUmc, Amsterdam, NL-1081 BT, Netherlands

    Johannes R. Anema

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Loisel, P., Côté, P. (2013). The Work Disability Paradigm and Its Public Health Implications. In: Loisel, P., Anema, J. (eds) Handbook of Work Disability. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6214-9_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6214-9_5

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