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Occupational Medicine Advance Access published online on September 4, 2009
Occupational Medicine, doi:10.1093/occmed/kqp128
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Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine 2009.

Factors associated with visits to occupational health physicians in Finland

Annukka Kimanen1, Pirjo Manninen2, Kimmo Räsänen3, Maria Rautio1, Päivi Husman1 and Kaj Husman1

1 Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland
2 Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Kuopio, Finland
3 School of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland

Background In Finland, employers can offer primary care to employees in addition to obligatory occupational health services (OHS).

Aims To analyse factors associated with visits to seek primary care from occupational health physicians (OH physicians) and compared with visits to physicians in municipal health centres, private clinics and hospital outpatient clinics.

Methods The subjects of this population-based cross-sectional survey comprised 1753 randomly selected employed Finns aged 25–64 years covered by OHS including primary care. The associations between visits to physicians during the past 6 months and factors related to work and perceived health were tested using Poisson regression analysis.

Results Provision of primary care in OHS increased visits to OH physicians but decreased visits to municipal health centre physicians. Among both genders, long-standing illnesses impairing work ability had the strongest associations with visits to all physicians. Among men, the factors associated with visits to OH physicians were long-standing illnesses without effect on work ability, requirement of sickness certificate from the first day of sickness, OHS arranged in private clinics and moderate stress symptoms. Among women, lower vocational level, OHS arranged in private clinics or joint-model OHS units, moderate stress symptoms and workplace harassment were associated with visits to OH physicians.

Conclusions Primary care in OHS enables OH physicians to reach workers with work-related health problems, thus enabling interventions on working conditions and work ability. Moreover, OHS seem to be a very important health care provider in Finland.

Keywords      Cross-sectional survey; occupational health physicians; occupational health services; office visits; work-related factors

Correspondence to: Annukka Kimanen, Vehkakulma 4 D, 02180 Espoo, Finland. Tel: +358 40 520 9851; fax: +358 30 474 7474; e-mail: annukka.kimanen{at}sll.fimnet.fi


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