The objective of this study was to estimate the economic burden of occupational injuries and diseases in five European Union countries for the reference year 2015.We used a ‘bottom up’ approach to estimate the economic burden from a societal perspective for Finland, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, and Poland. Three broad cost categories were considered—direct health care, indirect productivity, and intangible health-related quality of life costs. The methods started with data on newly diagnosed occupational injuries and diseases from calendar year 2015. We considered lifetime costs for cases across all cost categories. Sensitivity analysis was undertaken to assess the impact of key parameters.Indirect costs represent the largest proportion of total costs (with the exception is Poland), ranging from 66% for The Netherland to 43% for Poland. Intangible costs are the second highest, ranging from 49% for Poland to 21% for Finland and The Netherlands. Direct costs range from 16% for Finland to 8% for Poland.Average per case costing is highest for The Netherlands (€75,342), followed by Italy (€58,411), German (€44,919), Finland (€43,069) and lastly Poland (€38,918). Total costs as a percentage of GDP are highest for Poland (10.4%), followed by Italy (6.7%), The Netherlands (3.6%), Germany (3.3%) and lastly Finland (2.7%). In terms of costs per working population, the value is highest for Italy (€4,956), followed by The Netherland (€2,930), Poland (€2,793), Germany (€2,527) and lastly Finland (€2,331).The economic burden of occupational injuries and diseases in the countries considered are substantial, despite efforts to reduce adverse workplace exposures. Our case costs and total economic burden estimates provide a basis for undertaking economic evaluations of prevention efforts and can serve as a template for monitoring and evaluation at the country level. We advance the methods on several fronts.
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