The relationship of occupational injury and use of mental health care.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Boden L ; Hashimoto D ; Hopcia K ; López Gómez MA ; Sabbath E ; Sorensen G ; Williams J
• Description:
  Background: Healthcare industry workers suffer from high rates of musculoskeletal injury. In 2015, nursing assistants had among the highest incidence rates of musculoskeletal injuries (171.0 cases per 10,000 fulltime workers). Occupational injuries have been studied using workers' compensation claims, using outcomes such as medical costs and days away fRom, William N.ork. Nevertheless, there are only a few studies assessing comorbidities related to occupational injury. Studies of depressive symptoms and injury have established a strong link in both directions: depressive symptoms have been found to be a risk factor for unintentional injury, and similarly, injured workers have been found to suffer high depressive symptoms levels after injury. Longitudinal studies assessing this relationship have focused on mental health as a precursor or a consequence of injury but few have covered the period before and after injury. The aim of this study was to examine the likelihood of workers with an occupational injury to have a mental health claim paid through employer-sponsored health insurance before and after injury. Methods: Data from the Boston Hospital Workers Health Study (BHWHS) were used to assess the relationship of mental health care utilization and occupational injury. The BHWHS uses integrated administrative databases from two large academic hospitals in the Boston area. We used a matched cohort study design to assess the relationship of mental health and occupational injury in patient-care workers. Each injured worker (n=784) in 2012 to 2014 was randomly matched with replacement with three workers who did not report an injury at the time of injury of the case. The matching variables were job title (nurse or aide) and age. Medical claims for mental health care related to depression, anxiety, substance abuse and eating disorders were extracted for both injured and uninjured workers who were enrolled in their employer's sponsored health insurance. Observation of mental health care utilization occurred three months before and after the date of injury for injured workers and their uninjured counterparts. Using logistic regression models, we examined the association of occupational injury and use of mental health services before and after injury. Results: The sample consisted of 3,117 workers out of which 784 workers reported an OSHA recordable injury. Overall, 170 (5.5%) and 164 (5.3%) workers had at least one visit to mental health care services before and after injury respectively. A higher proportion of injured workers (8.6%, n= 67) had at least one mental health visit before injury compared to uninjured workers (4.4%, n=103) and the proportions were similar after injury. The odds ratio for use of mental health services before injury for injured workers was 2.01 compared with uninjured workers. The odds ratio for injured workers for seeking mental health services post-injury controlling for pre-injury visits was 1.50 (95% Confidence interval, 0.92-2.48) compared with uninjured, but the relationship was not statistically significant. Analogous analyses segregated by type of injury (musculoskeletal vs. others) and days away fRom, William N.ork showed similar results with higher odds ratios for injuries that required days away fRom, William N.ork (OR: 2.31, 95% confidence interval: 1.06-5.06). Discussion: Injured workers were more likely to seek mental health care before injury than uninjured workers, but these differences dissolved for post-injury visits when controlling for pre-injury visits suggesting that ill-mental health is more of a precursor than a consequence of occupational injury. Results point to a potential venue of injury prevention by focusing on promoting mental health, an area that workers' compensation rarely covers.
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Epidemiology Occupational Health Paint Preceptorship Safety Surveys And Questionnaires Workplace
• Keywords:
  Health Care Workers Injuries Injury Prevention Mental Health MSD Musculoskeletal Disorders Nurses Total Worker Health TWH
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Abstract
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  134-135
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20065668
• Citation:
  National Occupational Injury Research Symposium 2018, (NOIRS 2018), October 16-18, 2018, Morgantown, West Virginia. 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, 2018 Oct; :134-135
• Email:
  MALopez@hsph.harvard.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2019
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction ; Healthcare and Social Assistance
• Performing Organization:
  Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20070901
• End Date:
  20260831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:89806fa92863e04c022205879d857c32632411f1d5ef95de2c82c5a2c4ea93de574d854e42c7cc8404fa8f064df6d230434799dcc32083f8b58fd0268fad09e4
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/181956/cdc_181956_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 41.03 KB ]