title: Are female healthcare workers at higher risk of occupational injury?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Differential risks of occupational injuries by gender have been examined across various industries. With the number of employees in healthcare rising and an overwhelming proportion of this workforce being female, it is important to address this issue in this growing sector.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether compensated work-related injuries among females are higher than their male colleagues in the British Columbia healthcare sector.
  
  
  METHODS
  Incidents of occupational injury resulting in compensated days lost from work over a 1-year period for all healthcare workers were extracted from a standardized operational database and the numbers of productive hours were obtained from payroll data. Injuries were grouped into all injuries and musculoskeletal injuries (MSIs). Detailed analysis was conducted using Poisson regression modelling.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 42 332 employees were included in the study of whom 11% were male and 89% female. When adjusted for age, occupation, sub-sector, employment category, health region and facility, female workers had significantly higher risk of all injuries [rate ratio (95% CI) = 1.58 (1.24-2.01)] and MSIs [1.43 (1.11-1.85)] compared to their male colleagues.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Occupational health and safety initiatives should be gender sensitive and developed accordingly.
authors.affiliation: Statistics and Evaluation, Occupational Health and Safety Agency for Healthcare in British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. hasanat@ohsah.bc.ca
authors.forename: Hasanat
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Alamgir
authors.forename: Shicheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Sharla
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Drebit
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fast
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kidd
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D001955:British Columbia / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D014942:Workers' Compensation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology