Leslie Boden
Profiles

Leslie I. Boden, PhD

Professor, Environmental Health - Boston University School of Public Health

Biography

Les Boden is an economist, and much of his research has focused on finding ways to highlight the economic and human consequences of injuries and illnesses and to identify ways of minimizing those consequences. Over the past several years, Dr. Boden has published studies measuring the income lost by injured workers, the adequacy of workers compensation benefits, and the the impact of work-related injuries on mortality. With BUSPH colleague Lee Strunin, he has also published several studies of the post-injury experiences of injured workers and their families. Most recently, he has published on the impact of occcupational injuries on opioid use disorder and mortality from drug overdose and suicide. Dr. Boden has also published the results of studies that estimate underreporting of workplace injuries. He has also written on occupational safety and health regulation, medical screening, gender- and race-based inequality, and the legal and public health use of scientific information. Since 2010, he has collaborated on studies of the health and safety of patient care workers as an investigator at the Center for Work, Health & Well-Being, a multi-institutional collaboration centered at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. From 1988 to 1997, Dr. Boden served on the Mine Health Research Advisory Committee of the Department of Health and Human Services, which he chaired for six years. In 2001-2002, he was a member of the Worker Advocacy Advisory Group, which advised the Department of Energy on occupational disease. He has also co-chaired a group advising the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health on its research agenda on the social and economic consequences of workplace illness and injury. In 2016-2018, he served on the Advisory Board on Toxic Substances and Worker Health, advising the U. S. Department of Labor on benefits to nuclear weapons workers who became ill from exposures to toxic substances at work. Currently, he is Chair of the Workers’ Compensation Study Panel of the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Other Positions

  • - Boston Medical Center

Education

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, PhD Field of Study: Economics
  • Brandeis University, BA Field of Study: Economics

Publications

  • Published on 6/22/2023

    Williams JAR, Collins JE, Gandhi A, Yu H, Boden LI, Katz JN, Wagner GR, Sorensen G. Can Better Leadership Reduce Nursing Home Staff Turnover? J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2024 Mar; 25(3):403-407.e1. PMID: 37356810.

    Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 12/1/2022

    Boden LI, Asfaw A, Busey A, Tripodis Y, O'Leary PK, Applebaum KM, Stokes AC, Fox MP. . Increased all-cause mortality following occupational injury: a comparison of two states. Occupational and environmental medicine. 2022; 12(79):816-823.

    Read At: Custom
  • Published on 10/17/2022

    Boden LI, Asfaw A, Busey A, Tripodis Y, O'Leary PK, Applebaum KM, Stokes AC, Fox MP. Increased all-cause mortality following occupational injury: a comparison of two states. Occup Environ Med. 2022 12; 79(12):816-823. PMID: 36253089.

    Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 10/28/2021

    Collins JE, Boden LI, Gundersen DA, Katz JN, Wagner GR, Sorensen G, Williams JAR. Workplace Integrated Safety and Health Program Uptake in Nursing Homes: Associations with Ownership. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 10 28; 18(21). PMID: 34769830.

    Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 10/1/2021

    Busey A, Asfaw A, Applebaum KM, O'Leary PK, Tripodis Y, Fox MP, Stokes AC, Boden LI. Mortality following workplace injury: Quantitative bias analysis. Ann Epidemiol. 2021 12; 64:155-160. PMID: 34607011.

    Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 6/18/2021

    López Gómez MA, Gundersen DA, Boden LI, Sorensen G, Katz JN, Collins JE, Wagner G, Vriniotis MG, Williams JA. Validation of the Workplace Integrated Safety and Health (WISH) assessment in a sample of nursing homes using Item Response Theory (IRT) methods. BMJ Open. 2021 06 18; 11(6):e045656. PMID: 34145013.

    Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 6/4/2021

    Williams JAR, Vriniotis MG, Gundersen DA, Boden LI, Collins JE, Katz JN, Wagner GR, Sorensen G. How to ask: Surveying nursing directors of nursing homes. Health Sci Rep. 2021 Jun; 4(2):e304. PMID: 34136659.

    Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 4/1/2021

    Dorman P Boden L. Risk without reward: The myth of wage compensation for hazardous work. In: Unequal Power, Economic Policy Institute. Washington, DC. Economic Policy Institute. Washington, D.C. 2021.

    Read At: Custom
  • Published on 7/11/2020

    López Gómez MA, Williams JAR, Boden L, Sorensen G, Hopcia K, Hashimoto D, Sabbath E. The relationship of occupational injury and use of mental health care. J Safety Res. 2020 09; 74:227-232. PMID: 32951787.

    Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 5/1/2020

    Boden LI. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration at 50-the Failure to Improve Workers' Compensation. Am J Public Health. 2020 05; 110(5):638-639. PMID: 32267756.

    Read At: PubMed

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