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The impact of non‐fatal workplace injuries and illnesses on mortality
Author(s) -
Boden Leslie I.,
O'Leary Paul K.,
Applebaum Katie M.,
Tripodis Yorghos
Publication year - 2016
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.22632
Subject(s) - medicine , hazard ratio , proportional hazards model , confidence interval , occupational safety and health , demography , injury prevention , poison control , epidemiology , environmental health , surgery , pathology , sociology
Background Little research has examined the relationship between non‐fatal workplace injuries and illnesses, and long‐term mortality. Methods We linked non‐fatal injury cases reported to the New Mexico workers’ compensation system for 1994–2000 with Social Security Administration data on individual earnings and mortality through 2014. We then derived sex‐specific Kaplan–Meier curves to show time to death for workers with lost‐time injuries (n = 36,377) and comparison workers (n = 70,951). We fit multivariable Cox survival models to estimate the hazard ratio separately for male and female workers with lost‐time injuries. Results The estimated hazard ratio for lost‐time injuries is 1.24 for women and 1.21 for men. Ninety‐five percent confidence intervals were 1.15, 1.35 and 1.15, 1.27, respectively. Conclusion Lost‐time occupational injuries are associated with a substantially elevated mortality hazard. This implies an important formerly unmeasured cost of these injuries and a further reason to focus on preventing them. Am. J. Ind. Med. 59:1061–1069, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.