Design and Conduct of Occupational Injury Intervention Studies: A Review of Evaluation Strategies

Details

• Personal Author:
  Daltroy LH ; Fine, Lawrence J. ; Johnston JJ ; Melius, James M. ; Silverstein BA ; Zwerling C
• Description:
  Literature regarding the design, conduct, and evaluation of occupational injury intervention was reviewed. Database searches identified 38 reports and eight reviews that targeted occupational injury interventions. Engineering interventions focused on hazards associated with traumatic injury and musculoskeletal disorders and included adjustable work stations, tool redesign, and back belts. Administrative interventions consisted of organizational strategies, such as improved housekeeping practices and participative management. Personal interventions included the use of safety glasses, back belts, and training studies. Multiple interventions combined engineering, administrative, or personal interventions in multifactorial studies, such as reducing musculoskeletal load in cashiers by changing work organization and work stations. An alternative to randomized controlled studies was quasi experimental intervention studies in which a comparison group provides an estimate of what the injury rate would be without the intervention. Study design and specification of an outcome were the two most important factors in evaluating occupational injury intervention. Intermediate outcomes, defined as measurable events that occur during the causal pathway, from the intervention to the injury outcome, can be used in the evaluation of injury prevention interventions, such as implementation of safety training. Measuring a reduction in injuries was the most convincing demonstration of an intervention's effectiveness. The authors conclude that a number of strategies can improve the quality of intervention evaluations, including focus groups, researchers participating with workers, using more qualitative variables in studies, and measuring more intermediate outcomes instead of actual injuries which are rarer. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Musculoskeletal Diseases Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Preventive Medicine Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident-prevention Author Keywords: Injury Evaluation Humans Injury-prevention Intervention Methodology Musculoskeletal-system-disorders NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Cooperative-Agreement NIOSH-Grant NIOSH-Publication Occupational Occupational-hazards Preventive-medicine Safety-engineering Traumatic-injuries

  More +
• ISSN:
  0271-3586
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement ; Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  District of Columbia ; Iowa ; Massachusetts ; New York ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 7 ; Washington ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies ; DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  164-179
• Volume:
  32
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00238428
• Citation:
  Am J Ind Med 1997 Aug; 32(2):164-179
• Contact Point Address:
  Craig Zwerling, MD Prev Med & Environmental Hlth University of Iowa 100 Oakdale Campus, 124 Amrf Iowa City, IA 52242-5000
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1997
• NORA Priority Area:
  Disease and Injury: Musculoskeletal Disorders of the Upper Extremities
• Performing Organization:
  Center to Protect Workers' Rights
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19920930
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• End Date:
  19950929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f4f6a2ad448ac057e1c8cecc631992c2cdeeaa7ff7ee7da07b495951e6e6d3be457674cdb1fb87d734ee3cc11d3681038eebf99e5159faf3180668d73ef7512a
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/197923/cdc_197923_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 83.77 KB ]