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The Epidemiology, Cost, and Occupational Context of Spinal Injuries Sustained While ‘Working for Income’ in NSW: A Record-Linkage Study

This study aimed to describe the epidemiological characteristics, the occupational context, and the cost of hospitalised work-related traumatic spinal injuries, across New South Wales, Australia. A record-linkage study of hospitalised cases of work-related spinal injury (ICD10-AM code U73.0 or worke...

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Autores principales: Sharwood, Lisa N., Mueller, Holger, Ivers, Rebecca Q., Vaikuntam, Bharat, Driscoll, Tim, Middleton, James W.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6210681/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30261670
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102121
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author Sharwood, Lisa N.
Mueller, Holger
Ivers, Rebecca Q.
Vaikuntam, Bharat
Driscoll, Tim
Middleton, James W.
author_facet Sharwood, Lisa N.
Mueller, Holger
Ivers, Rebecca Q.
Vaikuntam, Bharat
Driscoll, Tim
Middleton, James W.
author_sort Sharwood, Lisa N.
collection PubMed
description This study aimed to describe the epidemiological characteristics, the occupational context, and the cost of hospitalised work-related traumatic spinal injuries, across New South Wales, Australia. A record-linkage study of hospitalised cases of work-related spinal injury (ICD10-AM code U73.0 or workers compensation) was conducted. Study period 2013–2016. Eight hundred and twenty-four individuals sustained work-related spinal injuries; 86.2% of whom were males and had a mean age of 46.6 years. Falls led to 50% of the injuries; predominantly falls from building/structures, ladders or between levels. Falls occurred predominantly in the construction industry (78%). Transport crashes caused 31% of injuries and 24% in heavy vehicles. Half of all the transport injuries occurred ‘off road’. The external cause was coded as ‘non-specific work activity’ in 44.5% of cases; missing in 11.5%. Acute care bed days numbered at 13,302; total cost $19,500,000. High numbers of work-related spinal injuries occurred in the construction industry; particularly falling from a height. Off-road transport-related injuries were significant and likely unaddressed by ‘on-road’ prevention policies. Medical record documentation was insufficient in injury mechanism and context specificity. Workers in the construction industry or those using vehicles off-road were at high risk of spinal injury, suggesting inefficient systems approaches or ineffective prevention policies. Reducing the use of non-specific external cause codes in patients’ medical records would improve the measurement of policy effectiveness.
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spelling pubmed-62106812018-11-02 The Epidemiology, Cost, and Occupational Context of Spinal Injuries Sustained While ‘Working for Income’ in NSW: A Record-Linkage Study Sharwood, Lisa N. Mueller, Holger Ivers, Rebecca Q. Vaikuntam, Bharat Driscoll, Tim Middleton, James W. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article This study aimed to describe the epidemiological characteristics, the occupational context, and the cost of hospitalised work-related traumatic spinal injuries, across New South Wales, Australia. A record-linkage study of hospitalised cases of work-related spinal injury (ICD10-AM code U73.0 or workers compensation) was conducted. Study period 2013–2016. Eight hundred and twenty-four individuals sustained work-related spinal injuries; 86.2% of whom were males and had a mean age of 46.6 years. Falls led to 50% of the injuries; predominantly falls from building/structures, ladders or between levels. Falls occurred predominantly in the construction industry (78%). Transport crashes caused 31% of injuries and 24% in heavy vehicles. Half of all the transport injuries occurred ‘off road’. The external cause was coded as ‘non-specific work activity’ in 44.5% of cases; missing in 11.5%. Acute care bed days numbered at 13,302; total cost $19,500,000. High numbers of work-related spinal injuries occurred in the construction industry; particularly falling from a height. Off-road transport-related injuries were significant and likely unaddressed by ‘on-road’ prevention policies. Medical record documentation was insufficient in injury mechanism and context specificity. Workers in the construction industry or those using vehicles off-road were at high risk of spinal injury, suggesting inefficient systems approaches or ineffective prevention policies. Reducing the use of non-specific external cause codes in patients’ medical records would improve the measurement of policy effectiveness. MDPI 2018-09-27 2018-10 /pmc/articles/PMC6210681/ /pubmed/30261670 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102121 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Sharwood, Lisa N.
Mueller, Holger
Ivers, Rebecca Q.
Vaikuntam, Bharat
Driscoll, Tim
Middleton, James W.
The Epidemiology, Cost, and Occupational Context of Spinal Injuries Sustained While ‘Working for Income’ in NSW: A Record-Linkage Study
title The Epidemiology, Cost, and Occupational Context of Spinal Injuries Sustained While ‘Working for Income’ in NSW: A Record-Linkage Study
title_full The Epidemiology, Cost, and Occupational Context of Spinal Injuries Sustained While ‘Working for Income’ in NSW: A Record-Linkage Study
title_fullStr The Epidemiology, Cost, and Occupational Context of Spinal Injuries Sustained While ‘Working for Income’ in NSW: A Record-Linkage Study
title_full_unstemmed The Epidemiology, Cost, and Occupational Context of Spinal Injuries Sustained While ‘Working for Income’ in NSW: A Record-Linkage Study
title_short The Epidemiology, Cost, and Occupational Context of Spinal Injuries Sustained While ‘Working for Income’ in NSW: A Record-Linkage Study
title_sort epidemiology, cost, and occupational context of spinal injuries sustained while ‘working for income’ in nsw: a record-linkage study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6210681/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30261670
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102121
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