title: Does the year-end decline in injury risk reflect reporting error?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Relatively little is known about seasonal patterns in occupational injury risk. Injury risk may vary seasonally due to weather-related factors or changing work exposure. Employer confusion about recordkeeping rules and injury occurrence near year end may also lead to an undercount of year-end injuries.
  
  
  METHODS
  Case records from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses and Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries were used to determine seasonality for a variety of injury types.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Reported injury rates were higher in summer and lower at year end. Difficult-to-identify injuries showed greater year-end incidence declines.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  End-of-year injury declines may have reflected reporting errors for some injury types. The summertime increase in injury risk was broad-based and presumably reflected real seasonal factors.
authors.affiliation: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, DC.
authors.forename: Brooks
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pierce
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D019352:Censuses; D000068598:Data Accuracy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D019221:Mandatory Reporting; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D060051:Occupational Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009817:Office Management / Q000592:standards*; D012306:Risk; D012621:Seasons; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D037041:United States Government Agencies; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: OSHA recordkeeping; Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses; occupational safety; seasonality; under-reporting; work-related injury