HSE press release E111:03 - 26 June 2003

HSE PUBLISHES DETAILED DATA ON WORK-RELATED ILL-HEALTH SURVEY

A major new report giving detailed information on the extent of work-related ill-health has been published today by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

The report, Self-reported Work-related Illness in 2001/02 - Results of a Household Survey, http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causdis/swi0102.pdf, confirms patterns which have emerged over the previous surveys in 1990, 1995 and 1998/99 and provides a useful perspective on the occurrence of work-related illness.

The main headline figures from this report appeared in Health and Safety Statistics Highlights 2001/02 (www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/overpic.htm) in December 2002, and full results are now presented in this new report.

Some broad comparisons of the latest results have been made with those from past reports. But these are limited because of the differences in the design of the four surveys and the level of information collected.

The report is primarily structured by disease category, and within each category by three measures: prevalence (pre-existing as well as new cases) of self-reported work-related illness in 2001/02, incidence in the same period (i.e. they first became aware of their illness in the previous 12 months) and estimated working days lost that year due to work-related illness. Within each measure, the data is further broken down via other variables such as age, gender, occupation, industry etc.

Results are based on 5,015 people living in Great Britain in 2001/02 who reported a work-related illness caused or made worse by current or past work. These individuals were identified by screening a nationally representative sample of 98,500 people in the Labour Force Survey.

The headline figures previously released indicated that the estimated prevalence of self-reported work-related illness in 2001/02 was 2.3 million, equating to 5.3% of the population who have ever been employed. An estimated 29% of this total, 0.7 million people ever employed, were incident cases. Among people employed in the last 12 months this equates to an incidence rate of 2.2%.

The estimated number of working days lost due to work-related illness during the 12 month period was 33 million. On average, each person suffering took an estimated 23 days off work in that 12 month period. Averaged across the working population this represents an annual loss of 1.4 days per worker.

This report provides a wealth of detailed information for example:

• Males carried a higher prevalence rate (for people who have ever worked) of musculoskeletal disorders (3.0%) than females (2.2%) whereas the corresponding rates of stress, depression or anxiety were both the same (1.3%). The gender-specific incidence rates were of a similar order for musculoskeletal disorders (0.8% of males and 0.7 % of females), but for stress, depression or anxiety the rate for females (1.1%) was higher than for males (0.7%).
• Prevalence rates were higher among employees than among the self-employed for stress, depression or anxiety (1.4% of employees and 0.8% of the self-employed). The opposite was true for musculoskeletal disorders (1.9% of employees and 3.0% of the self-employed).
• Full-time workers carried higher prevalence rates than part-time workers for work-related musculoskeletal disorders (2.2% of full-time workers and 1.6% of part-time workers) and stress, depression or anxiety (1.5% of full-time workers and 0.8% of part-time workers).
• Occupations with above average work-related illness prevalence rates included protective service occupations (for example workers serving in the police, fire service, prison service and armed forces) with an estimated rate of around 8.6% and health and social welfare associate professionals, skilled construction and building trades and teaching and research professionals with rates of around 7%. Three of these occupational groups (not skilled construction and building trades) also carried above average incidence rates and two of the groups (protective service occupations and health and social welfare associate professionals) above average annual days lost per worker.
• Industries with above average self-reported work-related prevalence rates of 5% or more included: agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing; public administration and defence; construction; education; health and social work and transport, storage and communication.
• Public administration and defence and education also carried above average incidence rates of around 3%. Industries carrying the highest average days lost per worker were extractive and utility supply industries, public administration and defence and health and social work.
• Two broad groups carried the highest prevalence rates of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, and accounted for 34% of the overall prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders: skilled trade occupations and process, plant and machine operatives. Each had estimated prevalence rates of over 3%. Within the first of these groups the occupation skilled construction and building trades carried a rate of over 5%. Other occupations with raised rates were protective service occupations with a rate between 2.4% and 5.3%, health and social welfare associate professionals with a rate of around 3.8%, elementary trades, plant and storage related occupations with a rate of around 3.0% and caring personal service occupations with a rate of around 2.6%. Taken together all the occupations mentioned accounted for 55% of prevalent musculoskeletal disorders (for people working in the last 8 years).
• In line with the occupational breakdown, industries carrying high prevalence rates of musculoskeletal disorders were agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing with a rate of around 3.8%, construction with a rate of around 3.6%, health and social work with a rate of around 2.8% and manufacturing with a rate of around 2.3%.
• Two occupations carried the highest prevalence rates of stress, depression or anxiety: teaching and research professionals with a rate of around 3.7% and protective service occupations with a rate between 2.1% and 4.9%. They were followed by health and social welfare associate professionals and business and public service associate professionals with rates of around 2% and corporate managers and administrative occupations with rates of around 1.7%. These occupational groups together accounted for around half the prevalent cases of self-reported work-related stress, depression or anxiety.
• Industry groups associated with high prevalence rates of stress, depression or anxiety largely reflected this occupational distribution, showing the highest overall rates of over 2% in public administration and defence and education. The industry breakdown also identifies financial intermediation as a section with an above-average rate of stress, depression or anxiety of over 2.0%.

Notes to Editors:

1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) commissioned a module of questions in the winter 2001/02 Labour Force Survey (LFS), to gain a view of work-related illness based on individuals' perceptions. The LFS is a household survey, and is intended to be representative of the UK population. This is the fourth survey of self-reported work-related illness undertaken in conjunction with the UK LFS. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) commissioned a survey in 1990 covering England and Wales, and one in 1995 covering Great Britain. The European Union Statistical Office (EUROSTAT) commissioned the third in 1998/99. This included most member states, but the UK coverage was restricted to people working in the past 12 months rather than people ever employed (as in the previous two surveys). The surveys are known as SWI90, SWI95 and SWI98/99 (surveys of Self-reported Work-related Illness). Results were published in 1993, 1998 and 2001.

2. Headline results from the new survey (SWI01/02) which covers Great Britain, were published in Health and Safety Statistics Highlights 2001/02, providing first estimates since 1995 of the overall prevalence (including long standing as well as new cases) of self-reported work-related illness in the last 12 months, of incidence (new cases) in the same period and of working days lost that year due to work-related illness. This report focuses on providing more detailed results by a range of demographic and employment-related variables. Some broad comparisons of the latest results with those from the 1990, 1995 and 1998/99 surveys are also presented. These are limited because of the differences in the design of the four surveys and the level of information collected.

3. The prevalence of an illness is the number of individuals suffering from it at a given point in time (or period of time). In the SWI, the prevalence is the count of people who have suffered from the reported illness in the 12 months prior to their interview. Prevalent cases may be of long-standing, and have made their first appearance years ago. The incidence of an illness counts the number of new appearances of illness in a given period. In the SWI, incidence is the number of cases where the affected person reported that they were "first aware" of the condition within the 12 months preceding their interview. Prevalence can be thought of as a "stock" of illness, incidence as a "flow" of new cases. Incidence rates are calculated on the population working in the last 12 months, and prevalence rates, unless otherwise stated, on the population working in the last 8 years.

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