Workers’ compensation injury claims of aviation industry worker injuries in Alaska, 2014–2015

Abstract

Aviation operations in Alaska often occur in remote locations and during inclement weather. Limited infrastructure and staff in some locations often requires aviation workers to perform tasks outside of their specific job descriptions. Researchers identified workers' compensation claims as a valuable data source to characterise nonfatal injuries among Alaskan aviation workers. Keyword searches of injury claim narrative fields and industry codes were used to identify potentially aviation-related workers' compensation claims during 2014-2015. These claims were manually reviewed to verify whether aviation related and manually coded according to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics' Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System. There were 875 aviationrelated injury claims accepted during 2014-2015. Ramp/baggage/cargo agents incurred the most injuries (35%), followed by mechanics/maintenance workers (15%). Among all workers, Overexertion and Bodily Reaction (40%) was most often cited as the injury event, followed by Contact with Objects and Equipment (28%), and Falls, Slips, Trips (22%). Sprains, strains, tears were the most frequent nature of injury (55%). Cargo/freight/luggage was the most frequent source of injury (24%). The 3 most frequently identified injury event types were responsible for over 90% of all injuries, which indicates that preventive interventions should be directed towards tasks rather than occupational groups.

Changing Care Settings for Injuries

“…Other studies using claims data have focused on a particular mechanism for injury, not the resultant injury itself, which also makes comparisons with our data difficult (E. R. Burns et al, 2016; Freeman & Leith, 2020), or on workers’ compensation injuries that are not captured in commercial claims because they are captured in workers’ compensation claims data (Moller et al, 2020). While patients with very serious injuries will probably seek care at an ED and ultimately an inpatient setting, patients may seek medical attention for less serious injuries in other care settings, especially given payer efforts to shift care from the ED to less expensive settings and the continued growth in UCCs (J.…”

Traumatic injuries among Alaska’s young workers: Linking cases from four data systems

“…Recent studies on occupational injuries in Alaska have described injury risks among all workers, as well as those specifically in aviation, logging, commercial fishing, and seafood processing [4,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Although workplace safety among young workers has captured national attention, none of the published studies to date have described injuries to young workers in Alaska beyond injury patterns among children (< 18 years of age) in the commercial fishing industry [18].…”