Utilizing hospital discharge data (HD) to compare fatal and non-fatal work-related injuries among Hispanic workers in New Jersey.
BACKGROUND
This study explores the utilization of Hospital Discharge (HD) data to obtain estimates of work-related non-fatal injuries rates in NJ to determine if Hispanics workers have an increased risk of specific work-related injuries. In addition, HD data are used to compare the rate ratios between fatal and non-fatal injuries in this population to demonstrate the effectiveness of using HD as a surveillance tool for monitoring injury trends and performing evaluations.


METHODS
Several types of fatal and non-fatal injuries were modeled using Poisson regression with the following predictor variables: gender, ethnicity, and year. The estimated number of workers by ethnicity employed in NJ each year was obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau, DataFerrett, Current Population Survey, November 2006, a data mining tool which accesses CPS data.


RESULTS
These analyses, utilizing estimates of working population at-risk, indicate that Hispanic workers have an increased risk of four particular work-related injuries compared with non-Hispanics, and Hispanics were injured at a younger age than non-Hispanics. In addition the rankings of the rate ratios from the comparison between non-fatal and fatal risk estimates were similar; indicating that occupational surveillance of non-fatal injuries is a viable component to be considered.


CONCLUSIONS
HD data are effective for monitoring trends over time across ethnic groups and injury types. Therefore, non-fatal injury surveillance should be considered for targeting specific worker populations for interventions to reduce exposure to workplace hazards, and can be a valuable surveillance tool in efforts to reduce occupational injuries.
McGreevy
K
K
New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, Trenton, New Jersey 08625, USA. katharine.mcgreevy@doh.state.nj.us
Lefkowitz
D
D
Valiante
D
D
Lipsitz
S
S
D000062:Accidents, Occupational / Q000145:classification / Q000401:mortality / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D057225:Data Mining; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009515:New Jersey / Q000453:epidemiology; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D017678:Sex Distribution; D055815:Young Adult