Lahiri Supriya, Gold Judith, Levenstein Charles
Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, Massachusetts 01854, USA.
Am J Ind Med. 2005 Dec;48(6):530-41. doi: 10.1002/ajim.20184.
Occupational low back pain (OLBP) is widespread in industrialized societies. We present a model to estimate the net economic costs of investments in ergonomic interventions at the company level to reduce work-related low back pain.
Costs of interventions are defined by incorporating not only the costs of investment of equipment and labor, but also by taking into account the avoided costs of lost work time, medical care costs, and productivity improvements. In the net-cost model, all costs are annualized and are calculated at the level of an individual organization. Three case studies have been performed based on data from three companies in the manufacturing sector of the United States using the above approach.
The net-cost estimates for the three case studies consistently show that ergonomic interventions applied appropriately can result in substantial cost savings for the companies.
Although generalizing on the basis of three case studies is not ideal, our analyses show that it might be in the economic interest of management to play a more active role to prevent back pain. Gathering useful retrospective cost data, even on interventions deemed effective by corporate innovators, proved to be extremely difficult. We conclude that it is essential to incorporate a protocol for collecting cost and effectiveness data in the standard operating procedures of ergonomists and companies introducing such innovation. We intend to validate the net-cost model for the monitoring and reporting of such data through prospective studies in a variety of industrial settings and in countries at various stages of economic development.
职业性下背痛（OLBP）在工业化社会中普遍存在。我们提出了一个模型，用于估计公司层面在人体工程学干预措施上的投资净经济成本，以减少与工作相关的下背痛。
干预成本的定义不仅包括设备和劳动力的投资成本，还考虑到避免的误工时间成本、医疗费用以及生产率的提高。在净成本模型中，所有成本都进行了年度化处理，并在单个组织层面进行计算。基于美国制造业三个公司的数据，采用上述方法进行了三个案例研究。
三个案例研究的净成本估计一致表明，适当应用人体工程学干预措施可为公司带来可观的成本节约。
虽然基于三个案例研究进行概括并不理想，但我们的分析表明，管理层更积极地预防背痛可能符合经济利益。事实证明，即使是收集企业创新者认为有效的干预措施的有用回顾性成本数据也极其困难。我们得出结论，在人体工程学专家和引入此类创新的公司的标准操作程序中纳入收集成本和有效性数据的方案至关重要。我们打算通过在各种工业环境和处于不同经济发展阶段的国家进行前瞻性研究，验证用于监测和报告此类数据的净成本模型。
