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Characteristics of occupational burns in Oregon, 2001–2006
Author(s) -
Walters Jaime K.
Publication year - 2009
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.20689
Subject(s) - medicine , burn center , occupational safety and health , workers' compensation , burn injury , occupational medicine , occupational injury , medical emergency , environmental health , injury prevention , public health , poison control , emergency medicine , occupational exposure , compensation (psychology) , surgery , pathology , psychology , psychoanalysis
Background Occupational burns are known to be a serious public health concern. This article describes work‐related burns in Oregon between 2001 and 2006. Methods Oregon Workers' Compensation (WC) burn claims were analyzed; data from a commercial insurance carrier (CIC) was used to characterize non‐disabling burn claims. To ensure that our primary data source (WC) captures as many burn cases as possible, we compared hospitalized cases to a regional burn center (RBC) and Oregon hospital discharge index (HDI) data. Results The WC burn injury rate ranged from a high of 1.8 per 10,000 workers in 2001 to a low of 1.4 per 10,000 in 2004. We identified 2,165 accepted burn claims in CIC data, of which 85% were non‐disabling. We matched data from a regional burn center to a subset of hospitalized claims from WC data and found an additional 44 cases of occupational hospitalized burns representing a 3% increase in total cases captured. Conclusions Occupational burns continue to be a problem for working Oregonians, and the use of additional data sources outside of WC augments our surveillance system. Am. J. Ind. Med. 52:380–390, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.