All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality Resulting from Non-Fatal Occupational Injuries

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PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT This study will use linked workers' compensation, the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File, and National Death Index data to determine the impact of non-fatal workplace injuries and illnesses on all-cause and cause-specific mortality in Washington State. We will follow all workers with compensated lost-time workplace injuries and illness with dates of injury between1994-2001 and a comparison group of workers in the same time period with injuries involving no more than three days off work. We will follow this cohort through 2018, providing up to 25 years of mortality follow-up. This study will use separate Cox proportional hazards regressions for men and women and for injured and comparison workers to estimate all-cause hazard of mortality after the date of injury. To account for potential bias from unobserved confounders, information on compensated workplace injuries and confounders from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), along with mortality-confounder relationships from the literature will inform quantitative bias analysis. We will use the Fine and Gray approach to analyze cause-specific mortality in this study and also examine all- cause mortality hazard for injuries to different body parts. This line of research can add a new dimension to our understanding of the burden of non-fatal occupational injuries: their impact on mortality. In the past 10-15 years, researchers have found that after an occupational injury, many workers suffer long-term declines in earnings in addition to chronic health impacts. The investigators did an initial study in New Mexico showing increased mortality risk in the decades following injury. The knowledge gained from this new project can be a step toward a more complete understanding the injury- mortality link, enabling us to focus prevention on injuries that have the greatest effect on mortality.