title: What determines the size of occupational health services in UK universities?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is wide, largely unexplained, variation in occupational health (OH) provision between UK employers.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To explain the variation in OH provision across the UK university sector.
  
  
  METHODS
  Analyses of data from a survey of university OH services and from the Higher Education Statistics Agency. The outcome variable was clinical (doctor + nurse) staffing of the university's OH service. The explanatory variables examined were university size, income, research activity score and presence or absence of academic disciplines categorized by an expert panel as requiring a high level of OH provision.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All 117 UK universities were included and 93 (79%) responded; with exclusions and incomplete data, between 80 and 89 were included in analyses. There was wide variation in clinical OH staffing (range 0-8.4 full-time equivalents). Number of university staff explained 34% of the variation in OH staffing. After adjusting for other factors, neither the research activity nor the presence of high-needs disciplines appeared to be factors currently used by employers to determine their investment in OH.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Government or other guidelines for university employers should take organizational size into account. Employers may need guidance on how to provide OH services proportionate to specific occupational hazards or other OH needs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. kate.venables@dphpc.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: Katherine M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Venables
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Allender
mesh_terms: D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D009740:Nursing Staff; D009786:Occupational Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010820:Physicians; D012106:Research; D012576:Schools, Health Occupations; D006113:United Kingdom; D014495:Universities