Methodologic issues in the use of workers' compensation databases for the study of work injuries with days away from work. I. Sensitivity of case ascertainment

Abstract

Statewide workers' compensation administrative databases can have substantial utility for epidemiologic study of work injuries with DAFW because of their size, using high sensitivity for case ascertainment as the evaluative criterion.

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

“…Second, we excluded cases that resulted in less than 1 day of work loss even though these cases comprise the majority in the Annual Survey. Our results are consistent with the literature that suggests large duplication between Annual Survey and WC records [Oleinick and Zaidman, 2004].…”

The law and incomplete database information as confounders in epidemiologic research on occupational injuries and illnesses

“…However, in the special case of studies intended to evaluate the performance of social legislation such as the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) or workers' compensation (WC) laws, determination of the sensitivity of case ascertainment of eligible cases is crucially dependent on the law's definition of eligible cases. Three recent studies [Oleinick and Zaidman, 2004;Rosenman et al, 2006;Boden and Ozonoff, 2008] that have attempted to reconcile case ascertainment by these federal and state schemes have reported widely differing results. In this update and expansion of our earlier article, we attempt to show that the differences, to a large extent, reflect differences in the treatment of the law as a confounder in the various study designs and, to a lesser extent, may also reflect missing data in databases used for matching in the two capturerecapture studies [Rosenman et al, 2006;Boden and Ozonoff, 2008].…”

Evaluating Clinical Practice Guidelines Based on Their Association with Return to Work in Administrative Claims Data

“…Resumption of part‐time work may indicate an incomplete recovery. Other studies have used time to the first regular work date, among other measures (Baldwin, Johnson, and Butler ; Oleinick and Zaidman ; Bultmann et al. ; Steenstra et al.…”

“…Resumption of part-time work may indicate an incomplete recovery. Other studies have used time to the first regular work date, among other measures (Baldwin, Johnson, and Butler 1996;Oleinick and Zaidman 2004;Bultmann et al 2007;Steenstra et al 2011). We tested the sensitivity of our findings to the definition of the outcome variable by estimating logistic regressions for work status at different points in time, and we obtained results that are consistent with those presented here.…”