Occupational Injuries Among Older Workers with Disabilities: A Prospective Cohort Study of the Health and Retirement Survey, 1992 to 1994

Details

• Personal Author:
  Davis CS ; Heeringa SG ; Sprince NL ; Wallace RB ; Whitten PS ; Zwerling C
• Description:
  OBJECTIVES: We tested the hypothesis that among older workers, disabilities in general, and hearing and visual impairments in particular, are risk factors for occupational injuries. METHODS: Using the first 2 interviews of the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative survey of Americans aged 51 to 61 years, we conducted a prospective cohort study of 5600 employed nonfarmers. RESULTS: Testing a logistic regression model developed in a previous cross-sectional study, we found that the following occupations and risk factors were associated with occupational injury as estimated by odds ratios: service personnel, odds ratio = 1.71 (95% confidence interval = 1.13, 2.57); mechanics and repairers, 3.47 (1.98, 6.10); operators and assemblers, 2.33 (1.51, 3.61); laborers, 3.16 (1.67, 5.98); jobs requiring heavy lifting, 2.05 (1.55, 2.70); self-employment, 0.50 (0.34, 0.73); and self-reported disability, 1.58 (1.14, 2.19). Replacing the general disability variable with specific hearing and visual impairment variables, we found that poor hearing (1.35 [0.95, 1.93]) and poor sight (1.45 [0.94, 2.22]) both had elevated odds ratios. CONCLUSIONS: Poor sight and poor hearing, as well as work disabilities in general, are associated with occupational injuries among older workers. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Age Factors Demography Epidemiology Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety
• Keywords:
  Age-factors Demographic-characteristics Injuries Job-analysis Occupational-health Risk-analysis Risk-factors Statistical-analysis Workers
• ISSN:
  0090-0036
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Iowa ; Michigan ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 7
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  88
• Issue:
  11
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20024792
• Citation:
  Am J Public Health 1998 Nov; 88(11):1691-1695
• Contact Point Address:
  Craig Zwerling, MD, PhD, MPH, University of Iowa Prevention Research Center, 100 Oakdale Campus, 124 AMRF, Iowa City, IA 52242
• Email:
  craig-zwerling@uiowa.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1999
• Performing Organization:
  University of Iowa, School of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19940930
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Public Health
• End Date:
  19970929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c58841f5abe5385174f9b30125bc730e01f1f1983a624dc1ecb31c4839d5747ea32b556097814b59f6f384187994d068201c8563cbc14cabd3c484a39be424e7
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/196412/cdc_196412_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.34 MB ]