The Work, Health, and Social Security Thematic Group is dedicated to addressing health-related topics in occupational health and social security.

About us

In the context of our Thematic Group, social security covers in particular medical issues related to disability insurance (for example, work disability) and to accident insurance (for example, health damage caused by injuries). In some countries, this specialty is referred to as 'insurance medicine'.

Our Thematic Group represents a long-standing collaboration between the Cochrane Work Review Group and the Cochrane Insurance Medicine Field (CIM), both of which bring extensive experience and expertise in evidence synthesis, methods development, and knowledge translation and dissemination. Our Thematic Group recognizes the growing challenges posed by an ageing workforce, such as an increasing prevalence of chronic diseases in the working population. Our Thematic Group aims to reduce work- and accident-related disabilities, and to improve work participation and social participation, while ensuring income security for those unable to work due to poor health.

Systematic reviews and evidence synthesis (Cochrane Work)

The group conducts, supports and (co)-authors evidence syntheses that inform best practices in occupational health and social security. Cochrane Work's activities will continue, including topics about the effectiveness of occupational health interventions with a focus on prevention, treatment, management, and rehabilitation. Recently, we have also been addressing prognostic questions. The following selected systematic reviews represent our group’s work compiling evidence from a range of topics:

• Work participation: Investigating strategies to support individuals with impaired health in maintaining their employment.
  • Non‐medical interventions to enhance return to work for people with cancer
  • Return‐to‐work coordination programmes for improving return to work in workers on sick leave
  • Interventions to improve return to work in depressed people
  • Interventions for obtaining and maintaining employment in adults with severe mental illness, a network meta‐analysis
• Prevention of occupational and work-related diseases: Identifying effective interventions to minimize workplace-related health risks.
  • Individual‐level interventions for reducing occupational stress in healthcare workers
  • Hearing protection field attenuation estimation systems and associated training for reducing workers’ exposure to noise
  • Personal protective equipment for preventing asbestos exposure in workers
  • Organisational interventions for preventing and minimizing aggression directed towards healthcare workers by patients and patient advocates
• Health promotion in the workplace: Evaluating programmes designed to enhance the overall wellbeing of employees.
  • Workplace interventions for reducing sitting at work
  • Interventions for improving recovery from work
• Health and safety risks from workplace exposures: Assessing the impact of various workplace hazards on long-term health outcomes.
  • Adapting shift work schedules for sleep quality, sleep duration, and sleepiness in shift workers
  • Workplace interventions to reduce the risk of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection outside of healthcare settings

Social security and insurance medicine

Our social security component focuses on providing robust evidence to support medical decision-making processes in the fields of disability and accident insurance. This includes supplying physicians, insurers, and medical experts with reliable data to inform their assessments of patients' work capacities and the insurance of sick notes. By disseminating high-quality evidence that is easy to access, the group ensures that the recommendations made in insurance medicine are both valid and reliable.

Collaboration and knowledge translation

A key objective of our Thematic Group is to foster collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in the fields of occupational health and social security. This collaboration is essential for the successful translation of evidence into practice, ensuring that the latest research findings are effectively shared with and used by stakeholders across the globe. The group's network of experts plays a crucial role in knowledge translation activities, promoting the widespread adoption of evidence-based practices in work, health, and social security.

Cochrane Corners from Cochrane Insurance Medicine

• Complex regional pain syndrome: many treatment options, little evidence
• Spinal cord stimulation for chronic back pain
• Coverage decisions by insurers: The evidence‐to‐decision framework, using the example of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) for the treatment of neuropathic pain
• Surgical or conservative treatment for impingement of the rotator cuff?

Multidisciplinary approach

Our Thematic Group benefits from the input of a dynamic, multidisciplinary team of authors and researchers with extensive experience in evidence synthesis. Their expertise spans a range of disciplines, including occupational health, social security, insurance medicine, and evidence-based practice. This broad expertise allows the group to address complex issues from multiple perspectives, ensuring comprehensive and well-rounded reviews that consider all relevant factors.

Our team

• Prof. Karen Walseth Hara, PhD, MD, Dept. of Public Health and Nursing, Norwegian University of Technology and Science, Trondheim (NTNU), Norway
• Dr. Jan Hoving, PhD, Dept. of Public and Occupational Health (POH) & KCVG, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
• Prof. Dr. Regina Kunz, MD, Evidence-based Insurance Medicine (EbIM) Unit, Division of Clinical Research, Department of Clinical Research, University of Basel and University Hospital Basel, Switzerland
• Steve McCrosky, Evidence-based Insurance Medicine (EbIM) Unit, Division of Clinical Research , Department of Clinical Research, University of Basel and University Hospital Basel, Switzerland
• Prof. Dr. Damien McElvenny, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
• Jessica Thomas BSc (Hons), PGD, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Our plans

The overarching mission of our Thematic Group is to contribute to evidence-based decisions in work, health, and social security, with a focus on enhancing work participation, occupational safety and health, fair access to social security in case of work disability, and wellbeing at work.

Specific objectives for the near future

• Supporting high-quality evidence syntheses: Focusing on the production of systematic reviews in high-priority areas within work, occupational health, and social security.
• Identifying priority topics: Systematically identifying key topics for systematic reviews and primary research in work, health and social security that will be confirmed through an international survey (ongoing).
• Contributing to methods development to support evidence synthesis: Developing and refining tools, reporting guidelines and harmonization of methods in the field such as the Core Outcome Set for Work (COSforWork.org) for use in intervention studies with work outcomes.
• Global, national and regional partnerships and dissemination: Collaborating with global partners such as 'Evidence for Work', EUMASS or International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) to disseminate Cochrane evidence and promote the group's activities on an international scale.
• Educational initiatives: Continuing to provide educational opportunities focused on Cochrane methodologies and evidence-based care within professional training programmes.
• Grant applications: Identifying and submitting grant applications for projects or infrastructure funding to support the group's activities.

Contact us

For more information about our work, please get in touch by email.

• View our Conflict of Interest declarations