Using injury severity to improve occupational injury trend estimates

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bowman SM ; Hogg-Johnson S ; Sears JM
• Description:
  Background: Hospitalization-based estimates of trends in injury incidence are also affected by trends in health care practices and payer coverage that may differentially impact minor injuries. This study assessed whether implementing a severity threshold would improve occupational injury surveillance. Methods: Hospital discharge data from four states and a national survey were used to identify traumatic injuries (1998-2009). Negative binomial regression was used to model injury trends with/without severity restriction, and to test trend divergence by severity. Results: Trend estimates were generally biased downward in the absence of severity restriction, more so for occupational than non-occupational injuries. Restriction to severe injuries provided a markedly different overall picture of trends. Conclusions: Severity restriction may improve occupational injury trend estimates by reducing temporal biases such as increasingly restrictive hospital admission practices, constricting workers' compensation coverage, and decreasing identification/reporting of minor work-related injuries. Injury severity measures should be developed for occupational injury surveillance systems. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Occupational Health Preventive Medicine Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Abbreviated Injury Scale Author Keywords: Injury Severity Hospital Discharge Data Injuries Injury-prevention Injury Surveillance Injury Trends Models Occupational Health Indicator Occupational Injuries Preventive-medicine Surveillance-programs Traumatic-injuries Work-environment Workers Workers' Compensation

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• ISSN:
  0271-3586
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 10 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  57
• Issue:
  8
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20044295
• Citation:
  Am J Ind Med 2014 Aug; 57(8):928-939
• Contact Point Address:
  Jeanne M. Sears, PhD, MS, RN, Department of Health Services, University of Washington, Box 354809, Seattle, WA 98195
• Email:
  jeannes@uw.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• Performing Organization:
  University of Washington, Seattle
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20120901
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• End Date:
  20150831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b13ca53beab25c766efcfae1664b3337fb4c4181a3aa2578af64d6df1edd94e836afd3173191b3b46330230df4971a7804654eabcba13eefdc43a8e23e32ef44
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/200031/cdc_200031_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 231.91 KB ]