BACKGROUND: Most state-based occupational health surveillance systems use workers’ compensation claims data or reports from employers to track work-related injury and illness, which lack data on potential risk factors and are subject to underreporting. The Washington State Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (WA BRFSS) has serially collected industry and occupational information and work-related injury and illness incidence of employed respondents. We present recent work-related injury and illness trends and describe incidence by individual characteristics from the WA BRFSS.
METHODS: We collected data from the WA BRFSS, an annual statewide cross-sectional survey, during 2011–2014 and included all respondents currently employed for wages (n=20,028), self-employed (n= 4,509), and out of work for less than 1 year (n=1,406). Work-related injury and illness was identified using the following state-added question: “In the past 12 months, have you been made injured while performing your job, OR has a doctor or other medical professional told you that you have a work-related illness?” All results were weighted to be representative of the general adult WA population. Bivariate analyses were conducted to test the association between work-injury and illness and demographics, indicators of health status, and select behaviors using the Rao-Scott Chi Square test.
RESULTS: During 2011–2014, 6.3% of those employed reported a work-related injury or illness in the previous year. The work-injury or illness rate did not significantly change in these years. Fewer self-employed workers reported work-injury or illness than others employed for wages. Work-injury and illness varied significantly by industry and occupation type. Report of work-injury and illness was significantly higher among veterans and males. Distribution of work-injury and illness was similar across age and race/ethnicity groups. Report of work-injury and illness was higher among those reporting poor physical and mental health, diabetes, depression, eyesight problems, arthritis, and less than 6 hours of sleep on average. Recent substance use (within past 30 days) was also associated with reporting work-injury and illness in the past year, specifically— binge drinking, marijuana use, and usage of pain killers to get high.
CONCLUSIONS: This cross-sectional survey cannot be used to distinguish whether associated health and behavior indicators are risk factors or outcomes related to work-injury and illness. The BRFSS does, however, provide information on workers not traditionally captured by many surveillance systems. All states should collect this information to enhance occupational health surveillance.