Utilizing hospital discharge data (HD) to compare fatal and non-fatal work-related injuries among Hispanic workers in New Jersey

• Published in: American journal of industrial medicine Vol. 53; no. 2; pp. 146 - 152
• Main Authors: McGreevy, K., Lefkowitz, D., Valiante, D., Lipsitz, S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 01.02.2010
• Subjects: Accidents, Occupational - classification; Accidents, Occupational - mortality; Accidents, Occupational - statistics & numerical data; Adult; Age Distribution; Data Mining; fatal injuries; Female; Hispanic; Hispanic Americans - statistics & numerical data; hosptial discharge data; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; New Jersey - epidemiology; non-fatal injuries; Patient Discharge - statistics & numerical data; Population Surveillance - methods; Sex Distribution; Young Adult; New Jersey; USA, New Jersey
• ISSN: 0271-3586; 1097-0274
• DOI: 10.1002/ajim.20746

Background This study explores the utilization of Hospital Discharge (HD) data to obtain estimates of work‐related non‐fatal injuries rates in NJ to determine if Hispanics workers have an increased risk of specific work‐related injuries. In addition, HD data are used to compare the rate ratios between fatal and non‐fatal injuries in this population to demonstrate the effectiveness of using HD as a surveillance tool for monitoring injury trends and performing evaluations. Methods Several types of fatal and non‐fatal injuries were modeled using Poisson regression with the following predictor variables: gender, ethnicity, and year. The estimated number of workers by ethnicity employed in NJ each year was obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau, DataFerrett, Current Population Survey, November 2006, a data mining tool which accesses CPS data. Results These analyses, utilizing estimates of working population at‐risk, indicate that Hispanic workers have an increased risk of four particular work‐related injuries compared with non‐Hispanics, and Hispanics were injured at a younger age than non‐Hispanics. In addition the rankings of the rate ratios from the comparison between non‐fatal and fatal risk estimates were similar; indicating that occupational surveillance of non‐fatal injuries is a viable component to be considered. Conclusions HD data are effective for monitoring trends over time across ethnic groups and injury types. Therefore, non‐fatal injury surveillance should be considered for targeting specific worker populations for interventions to reduce exposure to workplace hazards, and can be a valuable surveillance tool in efforts to reduce occupational injuries. Am. J. Ind. Med. 53:146–152 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.