Do occupational health and safety tools that utilize artificial intelligence have a measurable impact on worker injury or illness? Findings from a systematic review.
Arif Jetha, Hela Bakhtari, Emma Irvin, Aviroop Biswas, Maxwell J Smith, Cameron Mustard, Victoria H Arrandale, Jack T Dennerlein, Peter M Smith
{"title":"Do occupational health and safety tools that utilize artificial intelligence have a measurable impact on worker injury or illness? Findings from a systematic review.","authors":"Arif Jetha, Hela Bakhtari, Emma Irvin, Aviroop Biswas, Maxwell J Smith, Cameron Mustard, Victoria H Arrandale, Jack T Dennerlein, Peter M Smith","doi":"10.1186/s13643-025-02869-1","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Artificial intelligence (AI) holds promise as a tool that can be used by practitioners in the field of occupational health and safety (OHS). This study aimed to identify AI applications specifically used for OHS and examine their impact on worker morbidity or mortality outcomes.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted a comprehensive systematic review. We searched six databases to identify published quantitative studies of OHS AI applications across the hierarchy of controls that were published between years 2018 to 2024. Title/abstract and full-text screening was conducted to identify eligible studies which were then assessed for quality and risk of bias and synthesized.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Of the 1255 articles identified by our search, only two met eligibility criteria; one of which was appraised as medium quality and the other as low quality. The one medium quality study identified by our review was an AI-based chatbot health promotion tool which was shown to improve musculoskeletal symptoms. Our systematic review shows that we are at the early stages of understanding the role AI can play in OHS and it may be premature to recommend the wide-spread use of AI for health and safety practice within workplaces.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>There is a critical need for future research to unpack how considerations taken in the development and adoption of workplace AI tools for OHS can determine their effectiveness in addressing worker injury or illness.</p><p><strong>Systematic review registration: </strong>PROSPERO CRD42023414422.</p>","PeriodicalId":22162,"journal":{"name":"Systematic Reviews","volume":"14 1","pages":"146"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12247322/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Systematic Reviews","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-025-02869-1","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) holds promise as a tool that can be used by practitioners in the field of occupational health and safety (OHS). This study aimed to identify AI applications specifically used for OHS and examine their impact on worker morbidity or mortality outcomes.
Methods: We conducted a comprehensive systematic review. We searched six databases to identify published quantitative studies of OHS AI applications across the hierarchy of controls that were published between years 2018 to 2024. Title/abstract and full-text screening was conducted to identify eligible studies which were then assessed for quality and risk of bias and synthesized.
Results: Of the 1255 articles identified by our search, only two met eligibility criteria; one of which was appraised as medium quality and the other as low quality. The one medium quality study identified by our review was an AI-based chatbot health promotion tool which was shown to improve musculoskeletal symptoms. Our systematic review shows that we are at the early stages of understanding the role AI can play in OHS and it may be premature to recommend the wide-spread use of AI for health and safety practice within workplaces.
Conclusion: There is a critical need for future research to unpack how considerations taken in the development and adoption of workplace AI tools for OHS can determine their effectiveness in addressing worker injury or illness.
期刊介绍：
Systematic Reviews encompasses all aspects of the design, conduct and reporting of systematic reviews. The journal publishes high quality systematic review products including systematic review protocols, systematic reviews related to a very broad definition of health, rapid reviews, updates of already completed systematic reviews, and methods research related to the science of systematic reviews, such as decision modelling. At this time Systematic Reviews does not accept reviews of in vitro studies. The journal also aims to ensure that the results of all well-conducted systematic reviews are published, regardless of their outcome.
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号
