Pain and psychological distress are common in Australian workers, a new national report presenting a snapshot of the health of Australia’s workforce has found.
The report – Workforce Health in Australia, produced by the Healthy Working Lives Research Group at Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine – shows that 39 per cent of workers reported pain interfering with their work, and 40 per cent reported psychological distress in 2020-21.
The study also shows that 43 per cent of workers reported that their job was very demanding, and 12 per cent had a disability or long term condition affecting their work. Poor mental health led to 42 million days of lost work per annum in 2020 to 2022.
Professor Alex Collie from Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive
Medicine said it was the first time such comprehensive national figures had been collated.
“This national snapshot provides a benchmark to enable future tracking and monitoring of trends in worker health and well-being, highlighting the mental and physical health of Australian workers, the disability status of workers, fatalities and employees' overall health at work,” Professor Collie said.
To produce the report, the Monash team reviewed existing available datasets and identified seven nationally representative surveys and large national datasets that captured information on the health and wellbeing of employed Australians aged at least 15 years or older.
The seven different national datasets included: National Health Survey, National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Study,
Work-related Injuries Survey, National Return to Work Survey, National Data Set of Workers’ Compensation-based Statistics, and Work-related Traumatic Injury Fatalities Australia 2021.
“We reviewed the data items within each of the sources, and selected items that measured worker health and wellbeing and its determinants,” he said. “Determinants are the things that influence our health and wellbeing, such as diet and exercise and access to healthcare.
“Healthy workers are more productive at work, live longer, report a better quality of life and use fewer community resources than unhealthy workers. We also know that being sick and unable to work and working while you're sick, has enormous costs to individuals and society.
“Workplaces have changed a lot in recent years. How and what people do for work has also changed. For example, we’ve seen a rise in teleworking, and a growth in the gig economy. These changes have introduced new risks to worker health, and they occur in a rapidly evolving Australian society, in which both the health of citizens and the determinants of health are also changing.
“Unemployment is at an all time low, and our national productivity has stalled. Maximising workforce health is a really important opportunity to boost productivity. This report describes a way of measuring workforce health, so that we can identify the main opportunities for improvement,” Professor Collie said.
Key findings of the Health of Australia’s workforce report:
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63 per cent of workers rate their overall health as very good or excellent
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39 per cent of Australian workers reported that pain interfered with normal work
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22 per cent of Australian workers reported a mental health disorder with symptoms in the past 12 months
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18 per cent of Australian workers reported high or very high levels of distress in 2020-21 compared to 8 per cent in 2014-15
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12 per cent of Australian workers reported a disability or long term health condition affecting their employment
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43 per cent of Australian workers reported high job demands
The data also shows some improvements in the determinants of health, including reductions in job insecurity and smoking, and a rise in physical activity.
“The report represents a baseline that can be used to monitor workforce health over time. We need a better coordinated national approach to monitoring worker health, to identify opportunities for improvement and to track changes in response to new policies or programs,” Professor Collie said.
To read the full report: Workforce Health in Australia, please visit: here.
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