Surveillance of Musculoskeletal Injuries and Disorders in a Diverse Cohort of Workers at a Tertiary Care Medical Center

Details

• Personal Author:
  Dement, John M. ; Lipscomb HJ ; Pompeii LA
• Description:
  Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence of work-related musculoskeletal (MSK) injuries and disorders among a dynamic cohort of health care workers, including direct care providers and support services, employed at a tertiary care medical center. Methods: Human resources data were used to define the cohort and time at risk. Workers' compensation (WC) records (1997-2003) were utilized to identify work-related MSK claims. Poisson regression was used to generate gender specific rate ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of MSK injuries among workgroups. Results: MSK injuries resulted equally (is similar to 30% each) from lift/push/pull of equipment, patient handling, and slip/trip/falls. Injury rates and their mechanisms varied substantially by occupational group, gender, and race. Even with declining injury rates over time, black workers had rates 2.5 times higher than other workers and women had rates 1.8 times higher than men. Male and female nurses' aides, housekeepers, and radiology technicians had among the highest rates of injury, while lost workdays rates were highest for male and female nurses' aides, female housekeepers, and male patient transporters. Conclusions: Differential risk associated with work tasks in highly segregated work populations can contribute to disparities in health, and the patterns we observed partly reflect the high concentration of female and black workers in occupations with increased physical demands. While the greatest public health impact will be achieved by implementing prevention strategies among large workgroups with high injury rates, public health efforts must not ignore smaller, often segregated, workgroups identified in this study as high risk. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Demography Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Health Personnel Musculoskeletal Diseases Occupational Health Risk Assessment Safety
• Keywords:
  Demographic-characteristics Health-care-facilities Health-care-personnel Housekeeping-personnel Injuries Injury-prevention Manual-lifting Mathematical-models Medical-equipment Musculoskeletal-system-disorders Risk-analysis Surveillance-programs

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• ISSN:
  0271-3586
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  North Carolina ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 6 ; Texas
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  344-356
• Volume:
  51
• Issue:
  5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20033664
• Citation:
  Am J Ind Med 2008 May; 51(5):344-356
• Contact Point Address:
  Dr. Lisa A. Pompeii,The University of Texas School of Public Health, 1200 Herman Pressler, W1020, Houston,TX 77030
• Email:
  lisa.pompeii@uth.tmc.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2008
• Performing Organization:
  University of Texas
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20051002
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• End Date:
  20071231
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f25e8017c201594a394453cf3a42e18d03e4eb86eb59ae4d21f4f553801ab28b8d38513f432ba98f6f6d761879f9d4b0732e6e6757c0209287436ead9b2f5632
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/189144/cdc_189144_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 192.67 KB ]