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:
  • Occupational-health
  • Injuries
  • Risk-factors
  • Age-factors
  • Demographic-characteristics
  • Workers
  • Job-analysis
  • Risk-analysis
  • Epidemiology
  • Statistical-analysis
• 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
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/196412/cdc_196412_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.34 MB]
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c58841f5abe5385174f9b30125bc730e01f1f1983a624dc1ecb31c4839d5747ea32b556097814b59f6f384187994d068201c8563cbc14cabd3c484a39be424e7