Citation

Sears JM, Graves JM, Blanar L, Bowman SM. J. Occup. Environ. Med. 2013; 55(5): 507-513.

Affiliation

From the Department of Health Services (Dr Sears), School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash; Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center (Dr Graves), Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash; Department of Health Services (Ms Blanar), School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash; Department of Community Health (Dr Bowman, primary appointment), School of Health and Human Services, National University, San Diego, Calif; and Center for Injury Research and Policy (Dr Bowman, adjunct appointment), Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Md.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/JOM.0b013e31827ee018

PMID

23618883

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most common, costly, and disabling occupational injuries. Objectives included determining whether work-related TBI could be reliably identified using the Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System (OIICS) and describing challenges in developing an OIICS-based TBI case definition. METHODS:: Washington State trauma registry reports and workers' compensation claims were linked (1998 to 2008). Trauma registry diagnoses were used as the gold standard for six OIICS-based TBI case definitions. RESULTS:: The OIICS-based case definitions were highly specific but had low sensitivity, capturing less than a third of fatal and nonfatal TBI. CONCLUSION:: The use of OIICS versus International Classification of Diseases-Ninth Revision-Clinical Modification codes underestimated TBI and changed the attributable cause distribution, with potential implications for prevention efforts. Surveillance methods that can more fully and accurately capture the impact of work-related TBI across the United States are needed.

Language: en