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Duration of work disability: A comparison of self‐report and administrative data
Author(s) -
Pole Jason D.,
Franche RenéeLouise,
HoggJohnson Sheilah,
Vidmar Marjan,
Krause Niklas
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/ajim.20300
Subject(s) - medicine , occupational safety and health , injury prevention , workers' compensation , demography , descriptive statistics , indemnity , physical therapy , poison control , compensation (psychology) , actuarial science , emergency medicine , psychology , statistics , social psychology , business , mathematics , pathology , sociology
Abstract Background Studies have used insurer‐reported compensable days absent as an outcome measure when studying work‐related injury or illness. Compared to self‐reported days absent, insurer data are less expensive to collect. Previous work has identified that insurer‐claims data consistently underestimate the duration of days absent when compared to self‐report. The objective of this study was to examine the agreement between the number of self‐reported days absent from work following a compensable work‐related injury and the number of insurer‐reported compensation days paid, and to examine factors associated with the magnitude of the discrepancy between the number of self‐reported days absent and the number of insurer‐reported compensated days paid. Methods One hundred sixty six respondents who experienced a work‐related injury were interviewed approximately 200 days post‐injury to assess the number of days absent from work. The number of days compensated by the insurer was compared to self‐report using descriptive statistics and linear regression. Results Respondents who had yet to experience a return‐to‐work (RTW) had the largest median discrepancy followed by respondents with an unsustained RTW and finally sustained RTW. Respondents with upper extremity injuries, lower education, and lower RTW self‐efficacy showed greater discrepancy between self‐reported and compensated days absent. Among respondents who self‐reported fewer days absent than insurer‐compensated days absent an inverse relationship between firm size and discrepancy was noted. Conclusions Researchers should be aware of the discrepancies between self‐reported and compensated days absent. Future studies planning to incorporate days absent as an outcome variable should carefully consider what measure would be more appropriate and potentially collect both self‐report and administrative data to assess the discrepancy. Am. J. Ind. Med. 49:394–401, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.