title: Occupational injury surveillance of traumatic injuries in Illinois, using the Illinois trauma registry: 1995-2003.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Trauma registries continue to be underutilized for surveillance, despite providing data on the most severe injuries with a level of detail not available in national data sets or workers' compensation files.
  
  
  METHODS
  We evaluate trends and patterns of traumatic occupational injuries from the Illinois Trauma Registry (ITR).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Between 1995 and 2003, 44.4 of every 100,000 Illinois workers (age-adjusted) suffered work-related, nonfatal traumatic injuries. The majority of workers suffering traumatic injuries were white males younger than 55 years old. Falls were the most common cause of injury, and fracture of the extremities was the most common type of injury experienced by Illinois workers. Approximately 8% of all workers required either partial or total ambulatory assistance at time of discharge.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The ITR provides detailed and complete data regarding the most severe occupational injuries.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In contrast to reports from national surveillance data sets, we do not observe a significant decline in occupational injuries between 1995 and 2003. Trauma registries should be used more frequently for surveillance programs, because they provide detailed and reliable data regarding the most severe occupational injuries not available in other data sets.
authors.affiliation: Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA. lfriedman@tspri.org
authors.forename: Lee S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Friedman
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Forst
mesh_terms: D000062:Accidents, Occupational / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007087:Illinois / Q000453:epidemiology; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012042:Registries; D014193:Trauma Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology*