Prioritizing industries for occupational injury and illness prevention and research, Washington State Workers' compensation claims, 1999-2003.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to identify high-risk industry groups for effective allocation of occupational safety and health prevention and research resources.


METHODS
We used all compensable Washington state workers' compensation claims to rank North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industry groups by a "prevention index" (PI). The PI is the average of the rank orders of each industry group's claim count and claim incidence rate.


RESULTS
Of the 274 industry groups ranked by PI for all compensable workers' compensation claims, the following industry groups ranked the highest: NAICS 2381 Foundation, Structure, and Building Exterior Contractors, NAICS 4841 General Freight Trucking, and NAICS 2361 Residential Building Construction. Industry group PI rankings are reported for the seven most common costly occupational injury types.


CONCLUSIONS
Use of a PI can focus prevention and research resources where they can be of most benefit.
Bonauto
David
D
Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, Safety and Health Assessment and Research for Prevention (SHARP) Program, Olympia, Washington 98504-4330, USA. bone235@lni.wa.gov
Silverstein
Barbara
B
Adams
Darrin
D
Foley
Michael
M
D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000062:Accidents, Occupational / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007221:Industry / Q000145:classification*; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012106:Research; D014861:Washington / Q000453:epidemiology; D014942:Workers' Compensation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017132:Workplace; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control