Documenting the True Cost of Occupational Injury Burden in Agriculture: A Mixed Methods Effort to Improve Injury Surveillance Methods

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ABSTRACT Burden, Need, and Impact (BNI) provide the framework in which we prioritize research in Occupational Safety and Health (OSH). These guiding principles are used to by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to select the most critical workplace health and safety issues and to prioritize the judicious use of public health funding. However, a lack of information concerning the burden of occupational morbidity and mortality has been recognized by researchers and top policy officials as a critical impediment for the adequate prioritization of health and safety needs among US workers. This is especially true for the agricultural industry as special limitations hinder the quantification of morbidity, economic costs, and associated causal risk factors. The overarching objective of this three-year Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01) is to address this critical gap in fully understanding the burden of occupational injury in agriculture as it relates to improving injury surveillance, while gaining the additional training I need to be a fully independent and productive researcher. The need for more accurate and persuasive evidence warrants the investment in young investigators and innovative injury capture methods. To this end, I plan to create a framework to comprehensively characterize data sources and variables that will enhance the calculation of agricultural injury burden in the Northeast, ultimately providing a framework that can be replicated for other high-risk industries and sectors. I intend to suggest policy changes governing needed data, aimed at stakeholders and public policy makers. My long-term goal is to enhance the characterization of occupational injury burden in agriculture, and in the future in other high-risk industries. With advanced training in qualitative and mixed methods, economics, and health policy, I will be well positioned to address the critical gaps in fully understanding burden in agriculture. I will have a documented process which can be used to further enumerate these gaps in other areas, such as occupational illness, and for other industries e.g. forestry, commercial fishing, and beyond. 1