TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2014//
TI  - Using injury severity to improve occupational injury trend estimates
JO  - American journal of industrial medicine
A1  - Sears, Jeanne M.
A1  - Bowman, Stephen M.
A1  - Hogg-Johnson, Sheilah
SP  - 928
EP  - 939
VL  - 57
IS  - 8
N2  - BACKGROUND: Hospitalization-based estimates of trends in injury incidence are also affected by trends in health care practices and payer coverage that may differentially impact minor injuries. This study assessed whether implementing a severity threshold would improve occupational injury surveillance. <br><br>METHODS: Hospital discharge data from four states and a national survey were used to identify traumatic injuries (1998-2009). Negative binomial regression was used to model injury trends with/without severity restriction, and to test trend divergence by severity. <br><br>RESULTS: Trend estimates were generally biased downward in the absence of severity restriction, more so for occupational than non-occupational injuries. Restriction to severe injuries provided a markedly different overall picture of trends. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Severity restriction may improve occupational injury trend estimates by reducing temporal biases such as increasingly restrictive hospital admission practices, constricting workers' compensation coverage, and decreasing identification/reporting of minor work-related injuries. Injury severity measures should be developed for occupational injury surveillance systems. Am. J. Ind. Med. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0271-3586
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajim.22329
ID  - ref1
ER  -