HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (12) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Smith, G. S. Articles by Fingerhut, L. A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Smith, G. S. Articles by Fingerhut, L. A. Related Collections Gender Epidemiology Injury/Emergency Care/Violence Occupational Health Surveys

Gordon S. Smith, MB, ChB, MPH, Helen M. Wellman, MS, Gary S. Sorock, PhD, Margaret Warner, PhD, Theodore K. Courtney, MS, CSP, Glenn S. Pransky, MD, MoccH and Lois A. Fingerhut, MA

Gordon S. Smith is with the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, Hopkinton, Massachusetts, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland. Helen M. Wellman, Theodore K. Courtney, and Glenn S. Pransky are with the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety. Gary S. Sorock is with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Margaret Warner and Lois A. Fingerhut are with the National Center for Health Statistics, Hyattsville, Maryland.

Correspondence: Request for reprint requests should be sent to Gordon S. Smith, MB, ChB, MPH, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, Hopkinton, MA 01748 (e-mail: gordon.smith{at}libertymutual.com).

Objectives. We estimated the contribution of nonfatal work-related injuries on the injury burden among working-age adults (aged 18–64 years) in the United States.

Methods. We used the 1997–1999 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) to estimate injury rates and proportions of work-related vs non–work-related injuries.

Results. An estimated 19.4 million medically treated injuries occurred annually to working-age adults (11.7 episodes per 100 persons; 95% confidence interval [CI]=11.3, 12.1); 29%, or 5.5 million (4.5 per 100 persons; 95% CI=4.2, 4.7), occurred at work and varied by gender, age, and race/ethnicity. Among employed persons, 38% of injuries occurred at work, and among employed men aged 55–64 years, 49% of injuries occurred at work.

Conclusions. Injuries at work comprise a substantial part of the injury burden, accounting for nearly half of all injuries in some age groups. The NHIS provides an important source of population-based data with which to determine the work relatedness of injuries. Study estimates of days away from work after injury were 1.8 times higher than the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) workplace-based estimates and 1.4 times as high as BLS estimates for private industry. The prominence of occupational injuries among injuries to working-age adults reinforces the need to examine workplace conditions in efforts to reduce the societal impact of injuries.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				F J Basterra-Gortari and M Segui-Gomez Use of national health interview data to measure the burden of disease and injuries Inj. Prev., August 1, 2007; 13(4): 254 - 257. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				G S Smith, G S Sorock, H M Wellman, T K Courtney, and G S Pransky Blurring the distinctions between on and off the job injuries: similarities and differences in circumstances. Inj. Prev., August 1, 2006; 12(4): 236 - 241. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]