Key Objectives:
CSTE Position Statement 14-OH-02, Inclusion of Work Information as data elements in CDC surveillance systems recommended that ‘…occupation and industry and other work information as appropriated be included as data elements within CDC surveillance systems where feasible.’ CSTE also offered five ancillary recommendations outlining directions to accomplish this task. This roundtable will present the progress made to fulfill the recommendations established in the position statement through the collaboration of CSTE and CDC centers. It is also designed to engage current and future stakeholders who will be collecting and using these data.
Brief Summary:
According to the WHO and CDC, work is a key determinant of health and as such should be treated as a demographic data element. Since the mid-19th century, work information has been collected on vital records and health surveys because of possible social or economic implications of work types. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, occupation or type of work and the type of business or industry remain as critical surrogates for workplace exposures and related health outcomes. Although some CDC surveillance activities collect work information using consistent collection and standardized methods, others do not or may collect or code these data in nonstandard ways. In some instances, data collection practices may presume that there are a limited number of occupations at risk and therefore restrict questions to a few known occupations, while other systems may allow exploration of the possibility that less well-studied or emerging occupational groups are at risk. Since 2014, collaborations including CSTE, CDC’s Office of Public Health and Scientific Services (OPHSS), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) and the Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology and Laboratory Services (CSELS), has made it possible to include standard and codable work questions on industry and occupation in the National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (NNDSS). Discussions in this roundtable will cover, at minimum: 1) the benefits of including standard work variables for all NNDSS conditions; 2) reasons for using the NNDSS as the test case for partially achieving the goals of the position statement; 3) the questions to be included in condition specific message mapping guides; 3) the coding system used to translate the data from narrative to standard codes; 4) next steps.