Estimation of direct and indirect costs of occupational injuries: A case study in one of the refining industries in Iran in 2015

Introduction: Occupational injuries can impose a significant cost to the country’s economy. In developing countries, it is usually difficult to get access to occupational injuries data mainly because the lack of appropriate reporting and recording system, and in these countries, making it difficult to accurately estimate the costs of these injuries. The purpose of this study is to estimate the  direct and indirect costs of occupational injuries in one of the Iranian refining industries. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on all occupational injuries, including outpatient injuries to deaths in 2015. Data was collected based on a bottom-up approach, by using the recorded documents and a researcher-made questionnaire. Lastly the direct and indirect costs for different stockholders, including workers and their families, industry and society as a whole, were calculated. Investigated direct costs of occupational injuries included The healthcare costs, out of pocket cost and informal caregiving and Indirect costs included productivity losses, reorganization and investigation costs and home production costs. Results:  It is estimated that occupational injuries impose 103,385 million Rials to the society over a year. Investigated direct costs of occupational injuries imposed 14,152 million Rials (48 million Rials per case). Indirect costs imposed 89,232 million Rials to the society (308 million Rials per case). Also the average healthcare cost per case for fatal injuries is estimate 125 million, for serious injuries 12 million Rials and for outpatient injuries 780,000 Rials Conclusion: According to the results of the study, occupational injuries annually bring significant economic costs to the industry, workers and their families which a significant portion of these costs are indirect costs. These results indicates the status and importance of occupational injuries and therefore can be used by decision-makers and planners in occupational health-related issues.