Epidemiology of work-related injuries among insured construction workers in Iran

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Work-related injuries are among the most important health problems in developing countries, such as Iran. The purpose of this study was to determine the epidemiology of work-related injuries among construction workers who had been insured by the Iranian Social Security Organization (ISSO). METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study. The population included all construction workers who had a work- related accident during 2012 in Iran, which were recorded in the ISSO database after inspection. The effects of independent variables on injuries were estimated by logistic regression. SPSS software version 18 was used for analyzing the data. RESULTS: Overall, 5352 work-related injuries were investigated. The incidence rate of fatal and nonfatal injuries was 0.07 in 1000 and 11.18 in 1000 workers, respectively. More than half of these accidents were due to careless activities. A younger age at the time of the accident (OR=0.98, CI: 0.97–0.99, p=0.001), being married (OR=1.37, CI: 1.04–1.79, p=0.02), place of accident (OR=1.86, CI: 1.18–2.92, p=0.007), lack of information (OR=5.28, CI: 1.57–17.75, p=0.007), disrespect of safety regulations (OR=3.11, CI: 1.87–5.17, p=0.001), non-use of protective equipment (OR=2.98, CI: 1.62–5.50, p=0.001), and defective equipment (OR=2.22, CI: 1.18–4.20, p=0.01) had a significant effect on the incidence of work-related injury. CONCLUSIONS: The pattern of work-related injury in Iran was almost similar in regard to age, gender, cause and type of the accident, with other parts of the world.