Occupational Health and Development

Introduction
Occupational health is a neglected aspect of economic development theory, seldom considered in development models and rarely quantified. When occupational injuries and illnesses are considered, it is usually in terms of medical care costs, not burden of disability and financial insecurity. This treatment underestimates the value of preventive or occupational health services in early years of economic development because healthcare costs are low. However, healthcare costs rise quickly, the burden of disability and health-related low productivity becomes a drag on the developing economy, although the costs of investment in occupational health and prevention early in development are also very low.

Methods
Contemporary models of development, such as those assumed by the World Bank, begin with a central emphasis on community development and human rights as a precondition for sustainable development. We demonstrate, in an elaboration on the accepted model, that family income security depends not only on access to healthcare services but also importantly on community health and avoiding disabling work-related injuries and illnesses. We develop the model further to incorporate aspects of occupational health and environmental risk and postulate that the behavioural response to illness and disability, both individually and collectively, is an important factor in short-term development and sustainability that merits much more attention than it has received.

Results
Liang has shown how this played historically out in China. His work and the key concepts in this presentation are available in the new book Global Occupational Health (Oxford Univ. Press, 2011).

Discussion
Lastly, we emphasize that all economies are developing, including the present globalized economy, and that many industrialized economies are passing through transitions of their own into information-based, service-oriented economies in which personal health, population, health status and healthcare services are increasingly driving economic demand.