Exploring New Hampshire workers' compensation data for its utility in enhancing the state's occupational health surveillance system.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Armenti K ; Berko A ; Nigam R ; Vincent H
• Description:
  Workplace has an enormous impact on the health of the U.S. population. Nearly 3.1 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses were reported among private industry employers in 2010, resulting in an incidence rate of 3.5 cases per 100 equivalent full-time workers. Workplace illnesses accounted for 5.1 percent of the 3.1 million injury and illness cases. Work-related injuries and illnesses impose a huge burden on workers, their families, businesses, and the economy. A new study, funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), determined the cost of work-related injuries and illnesses in the United States to be $250 billion. This cost has risen by $33 billion since 1992, the last time a similar study was conducted. In New Hampshire, workers' compensation claims alone cost approximately $239 million in 2008. Work-related injuries and illnesses can be prevented with appropriate and targeted interventions. Successful approaches to making the workplace safer begin with having the most accurate and current occupational health surveillance data, which are necessary to understand the root causes of the problems that lead to occupational injury and illness. Unfortunately federal occupational health surveillance reporting requirements result in data gaps and shortfalls that do not accurately capture the true nature of occupational health and illness. This results in an inaccurate view that occupational health and illness is on a downward trend. The major sources of occupational health data for surveillance purposes are: Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Survey of Occupational Injury and Illnesses (SOII) and Census for Fatal Occupational Injury (CFOI), hospital discharge data and physician records, and state workers' compensation data. Data produced from these systems have been described as fragmentary, unreliable, and inconsistent, resulting in the underestimation of the true burden and magnitude of work related injuries and illnesses. The focus of this study was to better understand the contribution of workers' compensation data to surveillance of work-related injuries and illnesses in New Hampshire. We believe that WC data can be used for prevention priority setting purposes (as part of our fundamental, core occupational health surveillance program 6); and to augment (not replace) what we know from other data sources, such as hospital discharge, death and cancer data, and labor statistics data.
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Anesthesia Halothane Health Personnel Mental Health Nitrogen Oxides Occupational Health Safety Sense Organs
• Keywords:
  Economic Impact Health Care Injuries Injury Prevention Preventive Medicine Surveillance Work Environment Workers Workers Compensation
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Conference/Symposia Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  New Hampshire ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  111-115
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20049822
• Citation:
  Use of workers' compensation data for occupational safety and health: proceedings from June 2012 workshop. Utterback DF; Schnorr TM, eds. Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2013-147, 2013 May; :111-115
• Editor(s):
  Utterback DF ; Schnorr TM
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2013
• Performing Organization:
  New Hampshire State Department of Health Statistics and Data Management
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20100701
• Source Full Name:
  Use of workers' compensation data for occupational safety and health: proceedings from June 2012 workshop
• End Date:
  20150630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c7ba4a9c8d11899b57a019eed43f40d7897e873f01278424cf58f29dc68b89c9abd440c2c629924965eb8a6b6e035a07a5ae5150ae42f11b61d98c1480dd3b95
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/181713/cdc_181713_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.19 MB ]