Occupational safety and health in Europe - state and trends 2023 
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 61 
4 Trends in outcomes – safety, health and wellbeing  
Work accidents, work-related diseases and the level of work-related wellbeing114 are regarded as 
the three major health and safety outcomes of working conditions. They are used as lagging indicators 
(always work accidents and often  occupational or work-related diseases, sometimes wellbeing ) 
and as proof of evidence in political, scientific or practical discussions about the quality of working 
conditions and the effectiveness and performance of the OSH system.  
Work accidents are probably the most widely used indicator for assessment of the effectiveness of 
the OSH systems and the working conditions in general, also in a broader public; thus, this report will 
tackle this topic more extensively than other topics. Work accidents are regarded as a result of 
insufficient safety prevention. Occupational and work-related diseases are regarded as short- or 
long-term outcomes of all disease- generating circumstances or exposures at work, caused by any 
type of material or substance, by unhealthy physical activity or unhealthy inactivity, or by disease-
causing aspects of human interaction at work. Occupational and work-related diseases are categorised 
and assessed by experts, particularly by medical professions. Wellbeing is the newest concept, 
covering the individual or group perception of the working conditions.  
The presence of risk factors and — if possible — the level of exposure makes up the largest block 
of datasets in the OSH Barometer that is used to assess working conditions. 
 
4.1 Trends in safety outcomes – work accidents 
The development of better safety standards, safety technologies and  preventive organisational 
approaches were major factors to achieve a steady reduction of work accidents and fatal work 
accidents during the last 30 years. This is caused by crucial improvements in safety measures and 
technologies, by practical implementation of these measures in enterprises, by scientific developments, 
and crucially supported by the legal obligation to apply a comprehensive, proactiv e and preventive 
approach, as introduced in the EU Framework Directive.  
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