Correlation Between Workers' Compensation Injuries and Depression

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

other researchers in different fields. The provided data was from 16 large employers and over 440,000 employers. The dataset also includes information about enrollment, absenteeism, short-term disability, and workers’ compensation (WC). The WC file included the date of injury, number of lost time days, indemnity, and medical payments. They linked the WC and enrollment datasets to follow the before and after injury health status. They pulled workers, who were also in the enrollment file for all 12 months of 2005. This study found that workplace injuries may be followed by depressive episodes (Asfaw & Souza, 2012).
The next study was a prospective cohort study to determine the prevalence, incidence, and course of depressive symptoms following a workplace injury. The participants were Ontario workers that had filed a new WSIB lost-time claim for a work-related musculoskeletal injury of the back or upper extremity. Workers were able to participate if they had an injury that resulted in lost time from work of 5 days within the first 14 days after the injury occurred and were 15 years old or older. The sample size was 632 claimants that had successfully completed a baseline telephone interview. This was out of 1038 eligible potential participants. The data was collected through telephone interviews which focused on return to work and injury experience. It was found that high levels of depressive symptoms were prevalent in injured workers with musculoskeletal injury to the back or upper extremity (Franche, et al, 2009).
The next study studies the correlation between the stressfulness of filing a claim and long-term recovery. This study used participants that were admitted to 1 of 4 major trauma hospitals in 3 Australian states. These patients were admitted between April 2004 and February 2006. They chose a random sample of 1590 patients that were English speaking and aged 16 to 70 years old. Of those potential participants, 1010 provided written consent to participate and completed the intake assessment. They followed up with participants at 3, 12, 24, and 72 months after the injury and again at 6 years. Of the original participants, 616 participated in the 6 year follow-up. It was found that there is a high-level of stress associated with the actual claims process and those that had the most stressful experience reported poor long-term recovery (Grant, et al, 2014).
The final study was a study to determine how the role of a prior occupational low back injury will play in any future low back pain and any potential disability within the general population.

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

depression.
Does a Workers’ Compensation injury to the back, neck, or shoulder cause higher rates of depression? Those that sustain an injury to the back, neck, or shoulder, with lost time from work, will have higher rates of depression than those who do not. This hypothesis is justifiable as there has been previous research completed that shows those that have missed time from work have a poor injury outcomes and suffer from depressive symptoms. This research question is important to answer to help mitigate claims costs. By knowing if workers compensation injuries can cause depression or depressive symptoms insurance carriers and employers can do what they can to mitigate those costs. This contributes to what is already known as there have been some studies as it studies specific body parts versus a general area of the body. This will help insurance carriers and employers know what types of injuries may correlate with higher cost claims and which ones may not.