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American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 84, Issue 7 1106-1109, Copyright © 1994 by American Public Health Association

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Work-related traumatic brain injury in Washington State, 1988 through 1990.

N J Heyer and G M Franklin

Department of Environmental Health, University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Seattle 98103.

OBJECTIVES. Brain trauma is a major cause of disability in the United States, especially among young adults. Work-related brain trauma cases represent a subpopulation that may be amenable to intervention efforts, but largely because of unavailability of data, this group has not previously been studied. METHODS. Washington State workers' compensation data were used to identify brain trauma cases and to describe incidence rates with respect to age, gender, and industrial classification. Cause of injury was evaluated for industrial classifications with numerous cases. RESULTS. Washington State workers experienced 301 brain traumas over a 3-year period (9.4/100,000 full-time equivalent workers per year). One third of all traumatic brain injury claims were concentrated among seven industrial classifications. Cause of injury was highly correlated with specific industrial classifications. CONCLUSIONS. This study demonstrates the usefulness of diagnosis-related group codes to identify cases of traumatic brain injury. These injuries are concentrated among a few industries, with a dominant specific cause for each industry. This suggests that intervention methods may be efficiently introduced to reduce traumatic brain injuries in the workplace.






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Copyright © 1994 by the American Public Health Association