Occupational Health Equity

Program Goals

A key leadership role for the Occupational Health Equity program is the development of goals for occupational health equity. The Occupational Health Equity program is in the process of developing goals to guide NIOSH research and partnership efforts over the next decade.

NIOSH Program Portfolio Approach

NIOSH organizes its research, guidance, information, and service efforts into specific programs that can be readily communicated and strategically governed and evaluated. Ten sector programs represent industrial sectors, and seven cross-sector programs are organized around health and safety outcomes. There are also numerous core and specialty programs that represent special emphasis areas, methodological approaches, core activities and legislatively mandated programs.

The sector programs intersect with cross-sector programs in a matrix-like fashion, with relevant core and specialty programs playing a supporting role. For example, an Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Program goal of reducing farm-related deaths and injuries due to tractor rollovers and trucks would likely be a shared goal with the Traumatic Injury Prevention Program and if appropriate would be adopted by both programs. This approach provides an added advantage and will allow multiple Programs to work towards accomplishment of intersecting NIOSH goals.

Below are the current goals for the Nation developed during the second decade of the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA).

Occupational Health Equity Program Strategic Goals for Intramural Research

• Strategic Goal 1: Improve surveillance to describe the nature, extent, and economic burden of occupational illnesses, injuries, and fatalities resulting from social and economic structures historically linked to discrimination or exclusion; identify priorities for research and intervention and; evaluate trends in the inequitable distribution of occupational injury and illness.
• Strategic Goal 2: Conduct research that explores how barriers to safety and health related to these social and economic structures materialize at the worksite and how they can be overcome; continue developing institutional capacity to effectively promote occupational health equity by integrating these research findings in the field of occupational safety and health.
• Strategic Goal 3: Improve outreach and collaboration with stakeholders to overcome structural barriers to occupational health equity and promote the effective integration of occupational health equity research findings in the field of occupational safety and health.

Those seeking NIOSH grants to conduct studies related to the Occupational Health Equity program are invited to view the current funding opportunities