Work-related Injuries Among Immigrant Workers

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Description (provide by applicant): Many foreign-born persons are employed in the most hazardous sectors of the U.S. workforce, including the agriculture, construction, and service industries. However, despite the fact that there are millions of foreign-born workers in the U.S., research on work-related injuries and interventions to improve working conditions for foreign-born workers is limited. Several national surveys have been used to study a variety of health issues among immigrants in the U.S.; however, these national databases have not been fully utilized to study work-related injuries among foreign-born workers. Our long-term research goal is to study work-related injuries among foreign-born persons in the U.S. workforce. In this study, a large cohort of foreign born adults aged 18-64 years will be constructed using data collected in the 1997-2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) to study nonfatal work-related injuries among foreign-born workers. In addition, the NHIS data will be linked with data collected in the 1998-2003 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) to study medical care expenditures and sources of payments for treating nonfatal work-related injuries among foreign-born workers in the U.S. The Specific Aims of this study are: (1) To compare the nature, frequency, and risk factors of nonfatal work-related injuries between foreign-born and native-born workers in the U.S.; (2) To examine the medical expenditures associated with nonfatal work-related injuries among foreign-born and native-born workers in the U.S.; and (3) To describe the sources of payments for the medical treatment of nonfatal work-related injuries among foreign-born and native-born workers by size of employer and type of industry. The proposed study is based on our previous research analyzing NHIS and MEPS data for injury research and its benefits from the team's extensive complementary experience in work-related injury prevention research and in the field of health outcomes research. Accomplishing the Specific Aims outlined in this proposal will ensure that foreign-born workers, industry, academia, and national public health professional organizations have current information about nonfatal work-related injuries among foreign-born workers in the U.S. By expanding the knowledge base on work-related injuries among foreign-born workers, appropriate injury prevention programs can be developed and we move closer to achieving the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health's mission of promoting safety and health at work for all people.