The hidden cost: the health, social, psychological and economic consequences of occupationally acquired leptospirosis

Abstract

Many studies in New Zealand and overseas have explored the economic costs of work-related injuries and illnesses to the employer and to a lesser extent the injured or ill worker. Comparatively little investigation has been conducted into the social effects, including ill health, associated with work related injuries and illnesses and what circumstances may cause or exacerbate these effects. For example recent work by current and previous governments and employers on the costs to businesses of complying with the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 did not appear to set these compliance costs against the potential benefits of complying. That is, avoiding the much higher social and economic costs incurred through workplace injury and illness. My research examined the health, social, psychological and economic consequences to workers who have contracted occupationally acquired leptospirosis. The work forms part of a larger study undertaken by the Department of Labour and the Accident Compensation Corporation. My study was qualitative as I needed to not only explore workers' experiences but also the complex interactions that play a part in forming these experiences. I interviewed ten workers and three occupational health nurses. These interviews and my reading of OSH and ACC files enabled me to explore the work environment in which the exposure occurred, the effect of leptospirosis on the ill workers and to a lesser extent on their families, and features that may have caused or exacerbated the workers' experiences. I have found that improvement in the control of leptospirosis in the workplace is required, that leptospirosis has health, social, economic and psychological consequences for workers, and that workers' experiences are influenced by, and interact with, family, compensation schemes, employer characteristics, workplace characteristics and rehabilitation systems.