Article

Background Low back pain (LBP) is a major concern among North American workplaces
and little is known regarding a supervisor's decision to support job
accommodation for workers with LBP. The extent to which supervisors are included
in a company's effort to institute disability management policies and practices
and workplace safety climate are two factors that may influence a supervisor's
decision to accommodate workers with LBP. Objective Determine the association
between supervisors' perceptions of disability management policies, corporate
safety culture and their likelihood of supporting job accommodations for workers
with LBP. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study of supervisors (N=796)
recruited from a non-random, convenience sample of 19 Canadian and US employers.
The outcome was supervisors' likeliness to support job accommodation and the
exposure was global work safety culture and disability management policies and
practices. A multivariable generalized linear modelling strategy was used and
final models for each exposure were obtained after assessing potential effect
modifiers and confounders. Results In the study, 796 eligible supervisors from 19
employers participated. Disability management policies and practices were
positively associated with supervisors' likeliness to accommodate (beta=0.19; 95%
CI: 0.13; 0.24) while no significant association was found between corporate
safety culture (beta= -0.084; 95% CI: -0.19; 0.027) and supervisors' likeliness
to accommodate. Conclusions Employers should ensure that proactive disability
management policies and practices are clearly communicated to supervisors in
order to improve job modification and return to work efforts. Implications for
Rehabilitation Low back pain (LBP) is a major workplace concern and little is
known regarding what factors are associated with a supervisor's likelihood to
support job accommodation for workers with LBP. The objective of this article was
to determine the association between supervisors' perceptions of disability
management policies and practices, corporate safety culture and their likelihood
of support job accommodations for workers with LBP. Results suggest that
disability management policies and practices are positively associated with
supervisors' likelihood to accommodate while corporate safety culture is not.
These results are important for employers as it suggests that employers should
ensure that their disability management policies and practices are clearly
communicated to supervisors in order to improve job accommodation and return to
work efforts.

Langue : ANGLAIS