An Estimate of the U.S. Government’s Undercount of Nonfatal Occupational Injuries

Details

• Personal Author:
  Leigh JP ; Marcin JP ; Miller TR
• Description:
  Debate surrounds the size of the underestimate of nonfatal occupational injuries produced by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). We developed models that separated categories of injuries: BLS Annual Survey, federal government, agriculture, state and local government, self-employed outside agriculture, and all other. The models generated varying estimates depending on the assumptions for each category pertaining to job risks and amount of underreporting. We offered justification for the assumptions based on published studies as well as our own analyses of BLS data. The models suggested the Annual Survey missed from 0% to 70% of the number of injuries (from private firms, excluding the self-employed) it was designed to capture. However, when we included firms and governments the Annual Survey was not designed to capture, and considered reasonable assumptions regarding underreporting, we estimated the BLS missed between 33% and 69% of all injuries. We concluded that there was substantial undercapture in the BLS Annual Survey, some due to the excluded categories of government workers and the self-employed, as well as some due to underreporting. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Occupational Health Occupational Injuries Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accidents Injuries Models Occupational-accidents Risk-analysis Risk-factors Surveillance-programs Work-environment Worker-health Workers
• ISSN:
  1076-2752
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; Maryland ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  10-18
• Volume:
  46
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20029284
• Citation:
  J Occup Environ Med 2004 Jan; 46(1):10-18
• Contact Point Address:
  Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Medicine School, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616
• Email:
  jpleigh@epm.ucdavis.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2004
• Performing Organization:
  Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Calverton, Maryland
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20000601
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• End Date:
  20040531
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9241ae4e252c51c1848c8524c84abd4c8d56d2cf98eb3f17af30677e89e801214bf0bc65cf43524c46f78bf3fe16cef1daabd6397bd47c514d81a83de8e853f6
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/190309/cdc_190309_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 197.50 KB ]