Documents occupational injury 203 results

"This paper investigates the effect of unionization on occupational safety and health, as measured by the fatal and non-fatal work accidents, after controlling for the country's gross domestic product. It uses a panel sample of 10 European Union countries, for the period 1982–2006. The study takes into account the time persistence in work injuries and the endogenous nature of the work injuries–union density relationship. In addition, the effect of union density is decomposed into a temporary and permanent effect. It is shown that increasing union density is associated with a decrease in the number of both fatal and non-fatal work injuries."

"Objective Our previous work has suggested that the incidence of any occurrence of injury leave among police officers is higher on night shifts. In this study, we extended our inquiry to determine whether the incidence of long-term injury leave varies across shifts. Methods Police officers (N=419) from an urban department were included in the analysis. Daily payroll work history data from 1994–2010 was collected. Injury leave duration was examined ranging from ?1–?90 days. Poisson regression models were used to compute incidence rates (IR) and incidence rate ratios (IRR) of long-term injury. Results Cumulative incidence of injury for different durations of leave defined as ?1, ?5, ?10, ?15, ?30, and ?90 days were 61.3%, 45.4%, 39.9%, 33.9%, 26.5%, and 9.6% respectively. Age-and gender adjusted IRR of long-term injury (?90 days) for night versus day shifts was IRR 3.12, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.35–7.21 and IRR 2.21, 95% CI 1.04–4.68, for night versus afternoon shifts. Among all durations examined, the largest IRR was for injury ?90 days, night versus day shifts (IRR 3.12, 95% CI 1.35–7.21).Conclusions Night shift work was significantly associated with long-term injury among police officers after adjustment for age and gender. Although type of injury was not available, it is possible that variation in injury type across shifts might account for some of this association."

"OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were (i) to examine work scheduling in construction and (ii) to establish whether there is any connection between workhours and safety outcomes among construction workers. METHODS: The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 cohort (NLSY79), was used for the data analysis. Odds ratios were used to measure the risk of work-related injury in different worker groups. RESULTS: The findings showed that (i) construction workers started work earlier, worked longer days and fewer weeks a year, and were more likely to hold multiple jobs and change jobs than their nonconstruction counterparts and (ii) long workhours and irregular work schedules were significantly associated with a higher work-related injury rate after control for possible confounders. CONCLUSION: The results provide evidence that overtime and irregular work scheduling have an adverse effect on worker safety."

"Deterrence is a central consideration in the regulation of occupational health and safety (OHS) and has been the focus of increased empirical attention by regulators and researchers in recent decades. This article provides an evaluation of quantitative and qualitative studies that have sought to determine the deterrent effect of OHS enforcement on employer behaviour. The main findings are that enforcement does result in deterrence where sanctions are involved but not in the manner presumed by traditional deterrence theory, that the certainty of enforcement appears to be the most important component of deterrence, and that specific deterrence is greater than general deterrence. It is also apparent that there are many gaps in the understanding of the role played by enforcement in promoting compliance with OHS obligations and in reducing work-related injury. Apart from their implications for enforcement activity, these findings highlight the necessity for a fundamental re-conceptualization of deterrence theory."

"Objective The aim of this study was to examine the risk of work injury across shift work types in a *representative sample of Canadian workers. Methods We used the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics to investigate trends in work injury by shift type between 1996–2006. Work injury was defined by receipt of workers' compensation. Logistic regression was used to estimate the risk between shift type and worker injury after adjusting for potential confounders.Results The rate of work injury decreased overall between 1996–2006, but did not decline for night shift *workers. Night shift work was associated with work injury for women [odds ratio (OR) 2.04, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.13–3.69] and men (OR 1.91, 95% CI 1.21–3.03), while rotating shift work was associated with work injury for women (OR 2.29, 95% CI 1.37–3.82). The excess risk of work injury attributed to shift work was 14.4% for women and 8.2% for men based on population attributable fraction estimates. Conclusions Rotating and night shift workers appear to have a higher risk of work injury, particularly among women. Regulatory agencies and employers need to identify and mitigate factors that give rise to increased work injury among these types of shift workers."