Costs differences across demographic groups and types of occupational injuries and illnesses

Abstract

Costs comparisons can be drawn across age, race, gender, and occupational groups as well as categories of injuries and illnesses.

Industry-Related Injuries in the United States From 1998 to 2011

“…Of the four geographic regions defined for this study, the western United States had the highest proportion of admissions (38.3%), comparable with estimates reported in other studies. 35,39 As expected, and consistent with findings in similar studies, the majority of patients in this analysis were primarily male (81.4%), between 25 and 54 years, and were admitted with injuries to the extremities. 35,39 The large share of males in the patient pool could be due to the distribution of tasks in most industrial settings being influenced by sex, with men more likely to be involved in physically demanding and risky tasks than women.…”

“…3,17,[35][36][37][38][39][40] For example, a recent analysis of hospital admissions data for 2006 found that the mean charges for work-related injuries, per admission, were $32,254; common diagnoses included orthopedic injuries (including amputations) to finger/hand (20.9%); and the most common procedure was fracture reduction (17.6%). 35 Even though the data derived from this and similar studies are of value, they do not typically drive decisions in occupational safety and health.…”

Costs of occupational injuries in construction in the United States

“…Our estimates of costs for the construction industry inflate per-case costs from our 1993 cost model (Miller et al 2002;Leigh et al, 2006Waehrer et al, 2005Waehrer et al, , 2004 to 2002 dollars and apply these to incidence data from 2002. Our estimates for nonfatal injuries are based on the 1993 and 2002 Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (Annual Survey) collected by the BLS.…”

“…In this paper, we will present costs of fatal and nonfatal injuries for the construction industry at the three-digit industry level using incidence data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses and Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries and cost estimates based on an existing cost model for occupational injuries (Miller et al 2002;Leigh et al, 2006Waehrer et al, 2005Waehrer et al, , 2004. For nonfatal injuries involving days away from work (DFW), the BLS data allow us to break down construction industry costs for injuries involving days away from work by detailed source and event of injury, as well as by worker characteristics like age, race/ethnicity, and tenure in their current job.…”

Risk-based management of occupational safety and health in the construction industry – Part 2: Quantitative model

“…However, fortunately, these are not the most common accidents. In 1993, non-fatal accidents accounted for 78.9% of the total costs related to accidents in the U.S. (Leigh et al, 2006). Analyzing only the state of California, U.S., Leigh et al (2001) estimated that occupational diseases account for roughly 14% of the total cost with occupational safety and health, with the remainder relating to accidents.…”