Occupational Injury Among Personal Assistance Workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Eversley R ; Faucett J ; Fields J ; Kang T ; Newcomer R ; Scherzer T
• Description:
  Occupational injury is a prevalent problem in long-term care. However, there is a noticeable lack of research related to workers providing Personal Assistance Services (PAS) - the personal care and housekeeping tasks that enable elderly and other disabled adults to live in community settings. The project is a statewide telephone survey of PAS providers and recipients in California's In Home Supportive Services program (IHSS). The project documents work-related injuries, days of work lost because of these injuries, workers' perceptions about the factors that may have contributed to these injuries, how worker injury may contribute to worker turnover, and health care use (including worker's compensation) associated with these occupational injuries. A companion survey of PAS recipients was conducted. It document recipient injuries (e.g., fractures, sprains), potentially preventable adverse events (e.g., unintended weight loss, bed sores, contractures, and medication mismanagement), and recipients' perception of the consequence arising when PAS providers are unavailable due to work-related injury or illness. The sample was limited to PAS providers who are working with PAS recipients age 18 or older and who have two or more limitations in activities of daily living (i.e., bathing, dressing, transferring in/out of beds or chairs, toileting, and eating). PAS providers (n=855) reported on a variety of household and personal care tasks, including client lifting and transfers, as well as on barriers to care delivery. A total of 262 providers (31%) reported musculoskeletal symptoms or acute injuries causing at least moderate pain (defined as 'prominent' problems) that had occurred in the prior 12 months; 25% of that group (n=65) reported 12 or more episodes in the previous 12 months of probable work-related musculoskeletal symptoms. Because of these prominent problems, 26 workers missed work, 54 changed their work duties, and 12 had to drop work hours or clients. A second aim of the study was a companion survey of PAS Recipients (n=918). These individual reported on the training background, health status, injuries and other health events associated with their PAS, and information about and satisfaction with their PAS worker. Almost 90% of the respondents had been in the IHSS program for at least one year. Two-thirds of respondents had received some information or training relative to the task assistance they needed. However, for individual tasks (e.g., safe ways to lift and turn, help in feeding, help in bathing, maintaining hygiene and controlling infections) the proportions reduced to about 10%. Almost half of respondents had fallen in the past 12 months, with about 2/3rds of those reporting an injury. Usually this was a bruise or sprain, however 31 recipients reported fractures. Another 64% reported being injured from other causes. Again most of these we cuts, bruises or sprains. Bed sores (7.5%) and contractures (18.7%) were prevalent. Satisfaction with the PAS workers tended to be mixed: 45.6 reported being very satisfied, this contrasted with 1.2% being somewhat or very dissatisfied, leaving the about half reporting somewhat satisfied. Recipients report relatively few injuries among their workers (5.6%). However, consistent with the provider survey, just over half of these 51 episodes resulted in days when the worker either did not come to work or was unable to perform their normal activities. These results suggest some under reporting of injuries by workers to their PAS recipient employers. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Age Factors Aging Delivery Of Health Care Environmental Monitoring Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Health Personnel Musculoskeletal Diseases Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Staff Development Surveys And Questionnaires Workload Workplace

  More +
• Keywords:
  Age-factors Age-groups Body-mechanics Body-regions Chronic-exposure Exposure-assessment Health-care Health-care-personnel Health-services Health-surveys Humans Injuries Injury-prevention Medical-care Medical-services Musculoskeletal-system-disorders Occupational-hazards Personal Services Industry Rest-periods Risk-analysis Risk-factors Service-industries Sociological-factors Statistical Analysis Task Performance Training Work-analysis Work-intervals Work Capability Work Capacity Work Environment Worker Health Workers Work Performance Work Practices

  More +
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Final Grant Report
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-13
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20052054
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2018-101413
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, R01-OH-008759, 2010 Nov; :1-13
• Contact Point Address:
  Robert Newcomer, Ph.D., University of California San Francisco, 3333 California St. Suite 455, San Francisco, CA 94118
• Email:
  robert.newcomer@ucsf.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2011
• NORA Priority Area:
  Services
• Performing Organization:
  University of California San Francisco
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20070901
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20100831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a3fafd549b961e87347cc9f297a7ece2530194d39c55df563bd8efed3a1077d1a421adb275fca00af3afada4eb476beb97946401bf924dd9d1d46a4974a6edfc
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/218686/cdc_218686_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 258.31 KB ]