© Copyright 2007 by the Wyoming Department of Employment, Research & Planning
Vol. 44 No. 1
To understand how administrative data sets may be used to conduct occupational safety and health research, Research & Planning examined five abstracts from the National Occupational Research Agenda. These studies demonstrate a number of ways that survey and administrative data may be used to study workplace safety and health issues.
The Wyoming Department of Employment, Research & Planning section (R&P) has access to a number of data sources containing information about the safety and health of Wyoming workers. These include workers’ compensation claims, the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, and the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. These data present opportunities for learning more about workplace injuries and illnesses and their prevention.
A number of research entities throughout the United States and Canada, by means of the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health, use data sources such as those available to R&P to research workplace safety and health issues. From the study results, researchers make recommendations for injury and illness prevention, as well as providing direction for other health and safety research.
A sample of five studies conducted as part of the National Occupational Research Agenda, which is sponsored by the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health, were reviewed to help R&P better understand how their data may be applied to workplace health and safety research. Each of these studies could either be replicated or modified by R&P using Wyoming data to help workers, employers, policy makers, and other stakeholders in making informed decisions to improve workplace safety.
National Occupational Research Agenda Studies
A study conducted by researchers at Colorado State University examined the workers’ compensation experience of agricultural firms in Colorado using claims data from 2000 to 2004. Among their findings were that 19.5% of injuries were caused by strains, while 17.7% resulted from animals. The researchers sought to “direct attention to the development of safety interventions that address the worker-animal interface, fall protection systems, agriculture machinery usage, and overexertion prevention strategies” (Douphrate and Rosecrance, 2006, p. 104).
Another study utilized national Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries data to examine dump truck-related deaths. Researchers examined a number of factors, including how the deaths occurred and the activities workers were engaged in at the time of accidents. They then made several recommendations based on their findings to improve dump truck safety:
Recommendations include: 1) spotters or mechanical devices should be used to alert dump truck operators to the presence of workers on foot in their blind spots; 2) dump truck operators should slow down at every railway crossing; 3) dump truck operators should be required to set parking brakes and shut off the motor if they get out of the truck; and 4) workers maintaining dump trucks should be required to lock out raised dump truck beds to prevent them from falling (McCann and Cheng, 2006, p. 143).
Research & Planning could use the Wyoming Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries data it collects to examine fatal workplace accidents in the state in greater detail.
The physical and mental health of older Registered Nurses (RNs) was the focus of a study by researchers at the University of North Carolina. Their survey of RNs sought to evaluate “the relationships between demographic variables, job satisfaction, physical and mental health, and job related injuries and health problems of nurses over the age of 50 employed in hospital settings” (Letvak, 2006, p. 154). Among the study findings were that one in three RNs reported an occupational injury within the past five years, with needle sticks and back injuries being the most frequent. R&P has the capacity to combine survey data with administrative data such as workers’ compensation claims to provide a broader understanding of the health and safety issues faced by health care industry workers.
The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries conducted a review of their state’s workers’ compensation claims for 1998-2004. The study’s purpose was to assist their state’s occupational safety and health stakeholders and policy makers make informed decisions about where to direct prevention resources. They ranked industry groups according to the Prevention Index (PI). “The PI is the average of the rank orders of an industry group’s claim count and claim incidence rate. Industries were also ranked by PI for seven common high cost compensable workers’ compensation claims” (Adams, Bonauto, Foley, & Silverstein, 2006, p. 194). The PI can be used to determine which industries have higher risks for occupational injuries and illnesses. “By combining claim count and claim rates into a single measure, occupational health and safety resources may be targeted where they have the potential for greatest impact” (Adams, et al., 2006, p. 195). This type of research could be expanded to include occupation and other variables.
Workers’ compensation data were used to measure the reliability of workplace injury and illness estimates calculated by BLS in the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses program. University of Michigan researchers found that, for selected injury types, the relative frequency of severely disabling injuries was “seriously underestimated” (Oleinick, Gandra, Simon, & Werner, 2006, p. 175). Because R&P has access to both the state’s workers’ compensation database and Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses data, this research could be replicated in Wyoming. Doing so would help to confirm or refute the results of the Michigan study.
Summary
The National Occupational Research Agenda studies we examined provide a glimpse into how administrative data sets and survey data may be used to conduct occupational safety and health studies. R&P has both the data and the analytical skills to replicate or modify any of the studies discussed. Ultimately the goal of such is to improve workplace health and safety.
References
Adams, D., Bonauto, D., Foley, M., and Silverstein, B. (2006, April). Prioritizing industries for occupational injury and illness research and prevention. National Occupational Research Agenda Symposium 2006. Retrieved March 22, 2007, from http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/NORA/symp06/pdfs/NORASymposium2006Book.pdf
Douphrate, D.I. and Rosecrance, J.C. (2006, April). Workers’ compensation experience of Colorado agriculture workers, 2000-2004 [Abstract]. National Occupational Research Agenda Symposium 2006. Retrieved March 22, 2007, from http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/NORA/symp06/pdfs/NORASymposium2006Book.pdf
Gandra, C.R., Oleinick, A., Simon, C., and Werner, R.A. (2006, April). Nature of injury data in the BLS annual survey seriously underestimate the medical burden of work injuries. National Occupational Research Agenda Symposium 2006. Retrieved March 22, 2007, from http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/NORA/symp06/pdfs/NORASymposium2006Book.pdf
Letvak, S. (2006, April). Health and safety problems of older RNs employed in hospital settings. National Occupational Research Agenda Symposium 2006. Retrieved March 22, 2007, from http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/NORA/symp06/pdfs/NORASymposium2006Book.pdf
McCann, M. and Cheng, M. (2006, April). Dump truck-related deaths in construction, 1992-2002 [Abstract]. National Occupational Research Agenda Symposium 2006. Retrieved March 22, 2007, from http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/NORA/symp06/pdfs/NORASymposium2006Book.pdf
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