Conceptualizing Stigma in the Injured Worker Literature: A Scoping Review

Injured workers experience stigmatization, but the current literature has not applied a stigma lens to this demographic. Stigmatizing experiences are described, but not by readily using the term "stigma," making it difficult to locate these works. The purpose of this scoping review was to identify the terms and phrases that are being used to describe the stigmatizing experiences of injured workers.

A scoping review was conducted, searching MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and CINAHL for papers that described the stigma experiences of injured workers. The main objectives were to determine (i) whether the term "stigma" was used (and if it was a major or minor term) and (ii) what terms were used to describe these stigmatizing experiences. Post hoc, the terms were grouped into components of popular stigma theories (Attribution Theory, Modified Labeling Theory, and the Regressive Self-Stigma Model).

100 articles were included in the review. 48% of the studies used the term "stigma," but of these studies, only 11 (23%) used "stigma" consistently throughout their papers. There were 271 unique terms identified that described the stigmatizing experiences injured workers face, which most commonly described cognitive and behavioral forms of stigma.

This review confirmed that a stigma lens has not been adopted to describe the experiences of injured workers, but that prominent theories of public and structural stigma explain these experiences well. This review also consolidated the various terms used to describe stigma experiences of injured workers, which will improve accessibility of the current literature for knowledge users and interested parties.