Characteristics of Occupations at High Risk for Occupational Morbidity or Mortality

BACKGROUND:  The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologist Occupational Health Committee has developed a group of Occupational Health Indicators (OHI).  One of these indicators is based on occupations at high risk for occupational morbidity, with a second based on occupations at high risk for occupational mortality.  A recent study looked at the demographic characteristics of high risk morbidity occupations.  This study looks at the same characteristics for high risk mortality occupations with comparisons to the morbidity findings.  

METHODS:  The list of high risk occupations for morbidity was obtained from OHI 15: “Workers Employed in Occupations with High Risk for Occupational Morbidity.”  The high risk occupation list for mortality was obtained from OHI 16: “Workers Employed in Industries and Occupations with High Risk for Occupational Mortality.”  Demographic characteristics for these occupations were obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey for calendar year 2011.  Multivariate logistic models were derived using SAS SurveyLogistic software comparing high risk occupations to all other occupations in both the morbidity and mortality models.  Variables examined were age group, sex, race/ethnicity, education, nativity, wages, and geographic region of the United States (U.S.). 

RESULTS:  Age group, sex, race/ethnicity, education, nativity, and geographic region were all significant in both the morbidity and mortality multivariate models.  The wage variable was also significant in the morbidity model, but not the mortality model.  In both models, workers in high risk occupations were more likely to be middle aged, male, Hispanic, foreign born, having no post high school education, and working in the East South Central region of the U.S.  Blacks were also over represented in occupations at high risk for morbidity, but not in the mortality model.  In both models, education had the highest adjust odds ratio (3.08 for the morbidity model and 3.30 for the mortality model). 

CONCLUSIONS: Workers in high risk occupations for morbidity and workers in high risk occupations for mortality show several similar demographic characteristics, with the strongest being having no post high school education.  Prevention efforts should focus on these commonalities, with particular focus given to foreign born and Hispanic workers.