The intention to utilize occupational health services

Workers' intention to utilize the Occupational Health Service (OHS), conceived as a cost-benefit assessment of an action, is described for a series of conceivable situations. Data were acquired during interviews with a sample of 313 employees with an over-representation of workers with work-related health problems in three different companies. Only for problems that are perceived as medical, individual and work-related, do a substantial number of workers intend to utilize the occupational physician. For health and work-related problems of a collective character, the line of supervision is mostly preferred for use as an adviser. Workers' intention to utilize OHS is positively correlated with their attitude towards the occupational physician. No associations were found with self-reported health status, working environment or actual utilization of the OHS. It is concluded that the intention to utilize the OHS is an independent factor affecting the actual utilization and it should be seriously taken into consideration when evaluating or implementing the coverage by the OHS.