Evaluating interventions to prevent injuries to young workers.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Shannon H
• Description:
  Previous papers in this series of workshops have covered several issues on work safety in young workers. Breslin and Smith [2012] reviewed the risk factors for young workers; in particular, they explored why young workers have higher injury rates than adult workers, and among young workers, what risk factors are linked to experiencing a work injury. Two papers described the data collection systems that include information on injuries and other health risks in young workers in the United States and in Canada [Koehoorn 2007]. Jeremy Staff discussed the transition and adaptation to work of youth, drawing on previous literature and new analyses of an ongoing U.S. study; of particular concern was whether and under what conditions work has positive or negative effects on young workers. Mortimer's related review [2012] examined whether work during teen years has a positive or negative effect on psychosocial development, and if any such relationships are moderated by the time spent at work and the quality of work. Those papers provide the backdrop for my paper. Given that there appears to be broad consensus that injury rates are higher in young workers than in adults, particular efforts have been made in recent years to improve safety in this vulnerable group. Yet, as I will show, we do not know how successful these interventions have been. There is a dearth of proper evaluation of work safety measures in general, and almost nothing that I have found on specific interventions for young workers, with the notable exception of the agricultural sector in the United States. The lack of solid evidence is not surprising. Good evaluations are not easy to do in the messy world of work; and when interventions adopt a variety of measures in the expectation that at least some of them will 'work', sorting out the relative and combined effects may be almost impossible. Yet if we are to make progress in improving work safety, we must try to do these evaluations. This paper outlines approaches to achieve this aim. I will draw heavily on a document I co-authored [NIOSH 2001], which in turn used well-established principles of evaluation. A more basic introduction to evaluating work safety measures was produced by the Intervention Effectiveness Research Team of the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) and is a useful starting point for those with no background in the area [NIOSH 2004]. The (U.S.) National Safety Council has developed a presentation outlining these issues [National Safety Council 2004]. The paper will show the importance of rigorous evaluation, and outline briefly what we know about effective work safety interventions. I will note some specific challenges in applying the methods to measures targeted at young workers, list several types of interventions, describe what are known as threats to validity in evaluation studies, and then show what needs to be done to demonstrate the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of safety interventions.
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Anesthesia Consciousness Enflurane Health Personnel Mental Health Nervous System Nitrogen Oxides Occupational Health Safety Sense Organs Toxicology

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• Keywords:
  Adolescents Injuries Intervention Intervention Effectiveness Occupational Accidents Risk Factors Teenagers Worker Safety Young Workers
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Conference/Symposia Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  North Carolina ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  176-189
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20058888
• Citation:
  Health and safety of young workers: proceedings of a U.S. and Canadian series of symposia. Runyan CW, Lewko J, Rauscher K, Castillo D, Brandspigel S, eds. Morgantown, WV: 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. 2013-144, 2013 May; :176-189
• Editor(s):
  Runyan CW ; Lewko J ; Rauscher K ; Castillo D ; Brandspigel S
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2013
• NORA Priority Area:
  Services ; Manufacturing
• Performing Organization:
  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20060831
• End Date:
  20110228
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b10f84963e34bb41ac84d8c0fa60f7d8ca1b585ebb94816b190ffc92b3282bcfbd38d6c68322a5af771ffb57d4fe7ddb88f9e14e03443713503688f0f8b782e3
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/181856/cdc_181856_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 594.36 KB ]