Models for needs-oriented occupational health services in small companies

The availability of occupational health services are insufficient, especially in small scale enterprices (SMEs). These also often have limited resources for development and active interventions related to the work environment, and there is need for increased leadership competence on issues related to health, work place environment, and health related life-style habits.

This project studies examples of Swedish and Norwegian models for occupational health services in smaller companies. The focus is on improvement of health and working conditions, and the Swedish intervention model is mainly targeted at the managers, while the Norwegian focuses on both managers and employees.

Ongoing research studies are directed towards qualitative and quantitative analyzes of: 1) leaders' health, lifestyle and working conditions, 2) factors related to health and business efficiency, and 3) the effects of implemented interventions.

The research project is a collaboration between Stig Vinberg, Bodil Landstad and Glenn Björklund, Department of Health Sciences, and Jan Lisspers, Department of Psychology at Mid Sweden University, and it is part of AFA's three-year commitment to research on how the quality of occupational health services can be improved.