TY - JOUR T1 - Economic evaluation of occupational health services: necessary, challenging and promising JF - Occupational and Environmental Medicine JO - Occup Environ Med DO - 10.1136/oemed-2017-104495 SP - oemed-2017-104495 AU - Jeroen Luyten AU - Jonas Steel AU - Lode Godderis Y1 - 2017/09/12 UR - http://oem.bmj.com/content/early/2017/09/12/oemed-2017-104495.abstract N2 - In many countries occupational health services (OHS) are increasingly pressurised due to a lack of resources or on-going shortages of available occupational health physicians and professionals.1 2 A recent survey of 500 employers in the UK indicated that 'businesses are not clear on how much absence is costing them (54%), and less than half (46%) believe the measures they currently have in place to reduce absence have clear benefits’.3 At the same time, it is widely acknowledged that people’s state of health and working conditions are closely connected, that a substantial fraction of the physical and mental disease burden has its origins in the work environment, and that occupational health professionals have particular skills in tackling these health problems.4 5The benefits of OHS include protecting and promoting workers’ health and well-being and organising employee re-integration after illness, but also extend beyond that. For employers, a healthy workforce implies gains in worker productivity and engagement, reduced litigation costs and improved corporate image. … ER -