Occupational safety and health interventions: The state of the evidence
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According to the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll Engineering Safer Workplaces: Global trends in occupational safety and health report, one in five workers globally has experienced harm at work in the last two years. The International Labour Organisation estimates workplace accidents and diseases to be the cause of three million deaths and 395 million non-fatal work injuries every year.
Occupational safety and health interventions have the potential to reduce harms, accidents and injuries to workers around the world, but policymakers and practitioners can’t be certain that they are safe and effective without good evidence.
We conducted a review of the state of the evidence on occupational safety and health interventions, and where the gaps were that still need to be filled.
The quick read
A review of 53 reviews of Occupational Safety and Health interventions shows that the current evidence base:
- Covers a wide range of interventions, populations, settings and countries.
- Shows that many interventions are effective, but that studies are often limited by their methodology and reporting.
- Uses many different measures of safety, both direct and indirect, with few studies showing how and why interventions lead to safety outcomes.
- Lacks clarity and consensus on what is meant by ‘safety’ and related concepts.
In order to provide Occupational Safety and Health practitioners with the confidence to make decisions, future researchers should work closely with them to identify and fill gaps in the evidence.
Download the briefing
Occupational safety and health interventions: The state of the evidence (briefing)
Occupational safety and health interventions reduce workplace harms. This report reviews current evidence and identifies gaps to ensure their effectiveness and safety. (PDF, 4.48MB)
Citation (Briefing)
If you wish to use and reference the Occupational safety and health interventions: The state of the evidence (Briefing) in your own work, please include the following DOI: https://doi.org/10.60743/sfj8-km98
Example Citation in IEEE Style:
Lloyd's Register Foundation, “Occupational safety and health interventions: The state of the evidence (Briefing),” Lloyd's Register Foundation, 2025. doi: 10.60743/SFJ8-KM98.
Download the technical report
Occupational safety and health interventions: The state of the evidence (technical report)
The state of evidence technical report reviews 53 studies on OSH interventions, highlighting varied effectiveness and quality, and calls for standardised definitions and better research. (PDF, 941.25KB)
Citation (Technical report)
If you wish to use and reference the Occupational safety and health interventions: The state of the evidence (Technical report) in your own work, please include the following DOI: https://doi.org/10.60743/5tyv-4m51
Example Citation in IEEE Style:
Lloyd's Register Foundation, “Occupational safety and health interventions: The state of the evidence (Technical report),” Lloyd's Register Foundation, 2025. doi: 10.60743/5TYV-4M51.