Work disability duration among mobile workers: does intra-provincial mobility matter as much as inter-provincial mobility?

OBJECTIVE:To compare work disability duration of intra-provincially and inter-provincially mobile workers with non-mobile workers in British Columbia, Canada. METHODS:Workers' compensation claims were extracted for workers injured between 2010 and 2019. Employer and residential postal codes were converted to economic regions to define non-mobile, intra-provincially and inter-provincially mobile workers. Quantile regression models using matched cohorts were used to estimate differences in work disability days at different percentiles of the distribution. RESULTS:Compared to non-mobile workers, both mobile worker groups had longer work disability durations, particularly inter-provincially mobile workers. Differences persisted in injury-stratified models and were partially or fully attenuated in some industry-stratified models. CONCLUSIONS:Workers' compensation systems, employers, and healthcare providers may need to tailor specific interventions for mobile workers who are from out-of-province as well as travelling between regions in the province.