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Occupational Medicine Advance Access published online on March 13, 2009
Occupational Medicine, doi:10.1093/occmed/kqp010
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Short Report

Occupational health advice in NICE guidelines

A. Hashtroudi1 and H. Paterson2

1 Occupational Health Department, University Hospital of North Tees, Hardwick Road, Stockton TS19 8PE, UK
2 Occupational Health Department, Worklife & Wellbeing Centre, Newcastle General Hospital, Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE4 6B, UK

Background Sickness absence is a major concern for society costing >£13 billion annually. Seeking medical advice is highly recommended in managing sickness absence. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) provides guidance on treating ill-health and promoting public health. NICE has published >500 guidelines. There are three versions of each guideline including full (comprehensive version), NICE (summary of recommendations) and public version.

Aim To evaluate the availability of occupational health advice within relevant NICE guidelines.

Methods Guidelines were selected on the basis of the impact of the disease and its treatment on work ability. All selected guidelines were reviewed for occupational health advice. The findings were categorized in five main domains: impact of the disease on work, impact of work on the disease, rehabilitation, fitness to work and modifications.

Results Thirty-one published guidelines met the inclusion criteria. Advice on rehabilitation is most frequently referred to with 12 (39%) full, 8 (26%) NICE and 4 (13%) public information guidelines offering advice on this domain. Advice on return to work is the least frequent. The public versions of guidelines rarely offer advice on the studied domains. Occupational health organizations are enlisted as stakeholders in one guideline only. Two occupational health professionals have contributed to the development of two guidelines.

Conclusion This study suggests that occupational health professionals and organizations should participate more actively in developing NICE guidelines to integrate work-related issues and occupational health advice into NICE guidelines.

Keywords      Guideline; NICE; occupational health; sickness absence

Correspondence to: A. Hashtroudi, Occupational Health Department, University Hospital of North Tees, Hardwick Road, Stockton TS19 8PE, UK. Tel: +44 1642624189; fax: +44 1642624941; e-mail: ali.hashtroudi{at}nth.nhs.uk


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