title: Comparison of data sets for surveillance of work-related injury in Victoria, Australia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate differences and similarities between three sources of work-related injury information: workers compensation claims, emergency department (ED) presentation data and hospital admissions data.
  
  
  METHODS
  This population-based, retrospective descriptive analysis of non-fatal, work-related injuries of workforce participants in Victoria, Australia, has compared data from workers compensation claims and ED presentation and hospital admission data sets for the period 2004-2011. Work-related injury case frequency and rate were compared across study years according to gender, age, geographical location and injury type. Injury rates were expressed as cases per million hours worked.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Rates of hospital admissions for treatment of work-related injury increased over the study period, compared with decreasing rates of injury in compensation claims and ED data. The highest rate of injuries to younger workers was captured in ED data. There was greater capture of musculoskeletal injuries by workers' compensation data, and of open wound and burn injury by the ED data. Broad similarities were noted for temporal trends according to gender, for the distribution of cases across older age groups and for rates of fracture injuries.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These study findings inform use of workers' compensation, ED presentation and hospital admission data sets as sources of information for surveillance of work-related injuries in countries where these types of data are routinely collected. Choice of data source for investigation of work-related injury should take into consideration the population and injury types of interest.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health (MonCOEH), Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria Australia.
authors.forename: Judith A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: McInnes
authors.affiliation: Victorian Injury Surveillance Unit, Monash Injury Research Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Angela J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Clapperton
authors.affiliation: Victorian Injury Surveillance Unit, Monash Injury Research Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Lesley M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Day
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health (MonCOEH), Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria Australia.
authors.forename: Ewan M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: MacFarlane
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health (MonCOEH), Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria Australia.
authors.forename: Malcolm R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Sim
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health (MonCOEH), Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria Australia Institute for Work and Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000062:Accidents, Occupational; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001315:Australia; D002056:Burns; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases; D009784:Occupational Diseases; D060051:Occupational Injuries; D010343:Patient Admission; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D014937:Work; D014942:Workers' Compensation; D055815:Young Adult