Citation

Huang Z, Friedman LS. J. Occup. Environ. Med. 2017; 59(3): 282-288.

Affiliation

School of Public Health, Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/JOM.0000000000000948

PMID

28267099

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To develop a comprehensive definition to identify work-related burns in the National Burn Repository (NBR) based on multiple fields and describes injuries by occupation.

METHODS: The NBR, which is an inpatient dataset, was used to compare type and severity of burn injuries by occupation.

RESULTS: Using the definition developed for this analysis, 22,969 burn injuries were identified as work-related. In contrast, the single work-related field intended to capture occupational injuries only captured 4696 cases. The highest numbers of burns were observed in construction/extraction, food preparation, and durable goods production occupations. Occupations with a mean total body surface area (TBSA) burned greater than 10% include transportation and material-moving, architecture and engineering, and arts/design/entertainment/sports/media occupations.

CONCLUSIONS: The NBR dataset should be further utilized for occupational burn injury investigations and multiple fields should be considered for case ascertainment.

Language: en