Citation

Koehoorn M, Xu F, Village J, Trask C, Teschke K. J. Occup. Environ. Med. 2010; 52(9): 908-912.

Affiliation

From the School of Population and Public Health (Dr Koehoorn, Dr Teschke); School of Environmental Health, College for Interdisciplinary Studies (Dr Koehoorn, Ms Village, Dr Trask, Dr Teschke); and Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, Faculty of Medicine (Dr Koehoorn, Mr Xu), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/JOM.0b013e3181f02806

PMID

20798645

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:: To propose an incidence definition of back injury for epidemiologic studies using health care contacts. METHODS:: Medical services, hospitalizations, and workers' compensation data were linked for a longitudinal database of health care contacts among a cohort of heavy-industry workers for trajectory, group-based analysis. RESULTS:: During follow-up, 25.8% of workers had no health care contacts for back injury. Among workers with at least one contact, four trajectories were identified: one with a high probability of back injury during follow-up and three with episodic trajectories of increasing and decreasing probability of back injury. CONCLUSIONS:: Workers with no back injury history could be followed for incidence in cohort studies or as controls in case-control designs. Episodic groups could be followed for new episodes, providing they were free of health care contacts for back injury for at least 3 years.

Language: en