INJURY AND MUSCULO-SKELETAL DISORDERS AMONG AGING WORKER

过去几十年来，美国劳动力人口构成发生了深刻的变化，50岁以上工人的比例不断增加，但对这些工人的职业安全和健康问题关注不足。衰老过程如何影响损伤和肌肉骨骼疾病的风险？当老年工人受伤时，他们在严重程度和成本上如何与年轻工人的类似伤害进行比较？是否有某些工作或工作特征对老年工人构成了特别的威胁，或者其他的相对良性？为了解决这些问题，调查人员收集了一组健康、伤害、行政和环境数据库，涉及世界领先的铝制造商美国铝业公司（ALCOA）庞大而多样化的美国劳动力，PI担任该公司的医学主任。通过对这些数据的多层次分析，并收集一些有关工作组织的额外数据，我们提出：目标1：确定老年工人在特定工作水平上受伤和MSD的频率；目标2：确定老年工人在每种工作类型上受伤和MSD的严重程度；目标3：确定与年轻工人相比，老年工人在工作水平上相对风险较高和较低的特征；在个人层面上确定人口因素和健康状况对老年工人受伤和MSD风险的潜在修正作用。目标5：确定工作组织和文化对地点层面老年工人风险的潜在修正作用。这些分析的结果将用于为该组织和工业劳动力的后续干预试验制定策略。

The changes in the demographic composition of the US workforce over the past several decades has been profound, with an ever increasing proportion of workers over the age of 50, but there has been inadequate attention to the occupational safety and health issues of these workers. How does the aging process affect risk for injury and musculo-skeletal disease? When injuries do occur in older workers, how do they compare in severity and cost to similar injuries in younger workers? Are there certain jobs or job characteristics which represent particular threats to aging workers, or others which are comparatively benign? In order to address these questions, the investigators have assembled a group of health, injury, administrative and environmental databases on the large and diverse US workforce of ALCOA, the world's leading aluminum manufacturer, for which the PI serves as medical director. Through multi-level analyses of these data, and collection of some additional data regarding work organization, we propose to: Aim 1: Determine the frequency of injury and MSD at the job specific level in older workers Aim 2: Determine the severity of injuries and MSD's for each job type in older workers Aim 3: Determine the characteristics at the job- level with higher and lower relative risks for older workers compared to younger workers Aim 4: Determine the potential modifying effects of demographic factors and health status on injury and MSD risk among older workers at the individual level. Aim 5: Determine the potential modifying effect of work organization and culture on risks for older workers at the location level. The results of these analyses will be used to develop strategies for subsequent intervention trials in this organization and industrial workforces generally.