3 PERSPECTIVES ON WORK-RELATED INJURY SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS

This paper reviews surveillance approaches for occupational injuries a nd evaluates three emerging methodologies for the enhancement of work- related injury surveillance: (I) narrative data analysis, (2) data set linkage, and (3) comprehensive company-wide surveillance systems. All three methods are the result of new applications of computer hardware and software that have apparent strengths and limitations. A major st rength is the improved description of work exposures and related injur ies lending to better understanding of injury etiology. This understan ding, however is limited by tile data quality and completeness entered on records at the time of the injury. We recommend (1) more widesprea d inclusion of narrative text in databases, analyses of which can be a valuable supplement to injury coded data; (2) the increased use of da ta set linkage sturdies to combine injury and work-history data; and ( 3) the development of comprehensive company-wide surveillance systems to expedite the mse of epidemiologic data for occupational injury prev ention activities. Further development of these methods and others is encouraged, especially in light of technological advancements in data capture, analysis and presentation Only through such efforts can we be st apply epidemiologic principles to preventing injuries in the workpl ace. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.