Antecedent factors and disabling occupational morbidity - Insights from the new BLS data

Since 1992 the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) annual surve y of occupational injuries and illnesses (SOII) has collected data on occup ational injuries and illnesses involving 1 or more days away from work (DAW ). However, to date, the BLS has not published a comprehensive set of cross -tabulated part of body (BP), nature of injury or illness (NOI), and exposu re/event (EE) data, To improve the understanding of the causes of disabling occupational morbidity in the United States, the present study used a spec ial data call and data reduction strategy to identify the leading BP-NOI-EE combinations for DAW cases by frequency, incidence rate, and severity (med ian DAW) for 1996. The results indicated that the majority of injury and il lness morbidity reported by the BLS was related to musculoskeletal conditio ns of either gradual or sudden onset and traumatic injuries of sudden onset . In particular, traumatic injuries from sudden events such as falls result ed in the most disabling cases. The results indicate that the occupational morbidity identified in the SOII requires interventions focused on overexer tion and falls, as well as more traditional injury prevention approaches. T he BLS can improve the utility of the system by adding provisions for a sec ond event code to the coding structure and by improving direct access to th ese data for occupational health and safety professionals.