The Italian National Health Service expenditure on workplace prevention and safety (2006-2013): a national-level analysis

Background. The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that countries' health policies should give highpriority to primary prevention of occupational health hazards. Scant data are available on health expenditureon workplace prevention and safety services and on its impact on occupational health outcomes inItaly and in other European countries.Study design. objective of the present study was to systematically retrieve, analyse and critically appraisethe available national-level data on public health expenditure on workplace prevention and safety servicesas well as to correlate them with occupational health outcomes.Methods. National-level data on total public health expenditure on prevention services, its share spent onworkplace prevention and safety services as well as on number of workers receiving appropriate healthsurveillance were derived from the national public health expenditure monitoring system over a 8-yearstudy period (2006-2013). An analytic approach was adopted to explore the association between healthexpenditure and occupational health services supply.Results. The Italian National Health Service spends almost € 5 billion per year on preventive care, of which13.3% are spent on workplace prevention and safety programmes (€ 645 million, € 10.6 per capita). Thereis wide heterogeneity between Italian regions.Conclusions. Our findings are useful for health systems and policies analysis, national and internationalcomparisons as well as for health policy makers to plan, implement and monitor occupational health preventionprogrammes