Paradoxical Impact of a Patient-Handling Intervention on Injury Rate Disparity Among Hospital Workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Boden LI ; Dennerlein, Jack T. ; Hashimoto D ; Sabbath EL ; Sorensen, Glorian ; Yang J
• Description:
  Objectives. To test whether a comprehensive safe patient-handling intervention, which successfully reduced overall injury rates among hospital workers in a prior study, was differentially effective for higher-wage workers (nurses) versus low-wage workers (patient care associates [PCAs]). Methods. Data were from a cohort of nurses and PCAs at 2 large hospitals in Boston, Massachusetts. One hospital received the intervention in 2013; the other did not. Using longitudinal survey data from 2012 and 2014 plus longitudinal administrative injury and payroll data, we tested for socioeconomic differences in changes in self-reported safe patient-handling practices, and for socioeconomic differences in changes in injury rates using administrative data. Results. After the intervention, improvements in self-reported patient-handling practices were equivalent for PCAs and for nurses. However, in administrative data, lifting and exertion injuries decreased among nurses (rate ratio [RR] = 0.64; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.41, 1.00) but not PCAs (RR = 1.10; 95% CI = 0.74,1.63; P for occupation x intervention interaction = 0.02). Conclusions. Although the population-level injury rate decreased after the intervention, most improvements were among higher-wage workers, widening the socioeconomic gap in injury and exemplifying the inequality paradox. Results have implications for public health intervention development, implementation, and analysis. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Health Personnel Occupational Health Public Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Health Care Workers Injuries Injury Prevention Intervention Intervention Effectiveness Lifting Longitudinal Study Nurses Nursing Patient Handling Physical Stress Public Health Socioeconomics Total Worker Health TWH Work Practices

  More +
• ISSN:
  0090-0036
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement ; Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; North Carolina ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  109
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20057238
• Citation:
  Am J Public Health 2019 Apr; 109(4):618-625
• Contact Point Address:
  Erika L Sabbath, Boston College, School of Social Work, 140 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA
• Email:
  erika.sabbath@bc.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2019
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction ; Healthcare and Social Assistance
• Performing Organization:
  Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20070901
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Public Health
• End Date:
  20260831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6891864fd33bd4a478dc096a1441de4d4dc5714e4fb91d14025c81c057f9c716e35d7076400c57e21196b52718bb145518439841289cde63c6f1710e87084cb1
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/214657/cdc_214657_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 816.72 KB ]