An estimate of the US government’s undercount of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses in agriculture

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Ann Epidemiol
• Personal Author:
  Leigh, J. Paul ; Du, Juan ; McCurdy, Stephen A.
• Description:
  Background
  
  Debate surrounds the accuracy of US government’s estimates of job-related injuries and illnesses in agriculture. Whereas studies have attempted to estimate the undercount for all industries combined, none have specifically addressed agriculture.
  
  Method
  
  Data were drawn from the US government’s premier sources for workplace injuries and illnesses and employment: the Bureau of Labor Statistics databanks for the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII), the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), and the Current Population Survey (CPS). Estimates were constructed utilizing transparent assumptions; e.g. that the rate (cases-per-employee) of injuries and illnesses on small farms was the same as on large farms (an assumption we altered in sensitivity analysis).
  
  Results
  
  We estimated 74,932 injuries and illnesses for crop farms and 68,504 for animal farms, totaling 143,436 cases in 2011. We estimated that SOII missed 73.7% of crop farm cases and 81.9% of animal farm cases for an average of 77.6% for all of agriculture. Sensitivity analyses suggested that the percent missed ranged from 61.5% to 88.3% for all agriculture.
  
  Conclusion
  
  We estimate that there is considerable undercounting of nonfatal injuries and illnesses in agriculture and believe more than occurs in other industries. Reasons include: SOII’s explicit exclusion of employees on small farms and of farmers and family members and QCEW’s undercounts of employment. Undercounting limits our ability to identify and address occupational health problems in agriculture, affecting both workers and society.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Agriculture Databases, Factual Humans Occupational Diseases Population Surveillance Wounds And Injuries
• Source:
  Ann Epidemiol. 24(4):254-259
• Pubmed ID:
  24507952
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC6597012
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  U50 OH007550/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States ; U54 OH007550/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States ; 2U50OH007550/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Volume:
  24
• Issue:
  4
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:8d376b8b437e8daf9f32ea7cb81fa5656d5a78d768213f2e92ce82bfd597352e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/79497/cdc_79497_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 84.21 KB ]