Mortality by Occupation, Industry, and Cause of Death, 97-114 bk97114.html

Background - Mortality by Occupation, Industry, and Cause of Death: 24 Reporting States (1984-1988)

DHHS (NIOSH) PUBLICATION
NO. 97-114 JUNE 1997

Background

Information from death certificates was first used to describe occupational mortality in the United States in 1890. According to a brief description of occupational mortality studies in the United States,¹ tabulations of mortality by occupation were made for each census year from 1890 through 1940. The population data collected in the census were used to compute population-based measures of risk. These tabulations were, however, published only for the years 1890, 1900, and 1930. Evaluations found that the quality of the occupation-specific information was generally unsatisfactory. For the 1950 census year, efforts were made to improve the quality of occupational descriptors on death certificates. A major report was published based on deaths of men aged 20 to 64.^2,3 In this report, population estimates from the 1950 Census of Population were used to produce standardized mortality ratios (SMRs).

Other countries have produced reports on occupational mortality. Great Britain has published decennial reports on patterns of mortality for occupational groups since 1851. The latest publication covers the years 1979-80 and 1982-90.⁴ These reports have been used primarily to provide readily available background data for suspected associations between an occupation and excess mortality. A major report from Canada described mortality by occupation in British Columbia, using data from 1950 through 1984.⁵

Although the United States Standard Certificate of Death has requested information on the occupation of the decedent since 1900, until recently this information has not been readily accessible. Since the report using the 1950 data, there has been no national report on occupational disease mortality. Work-related fatal injuries were described in a recent report.⁶ Based on the National Traumatic Occupational Fatalities (NTOF) database, the report described occupational injury fatalities by broad industrial and occupational categories for the period 1980 through 1989. In addition, several States (including California,^7,8 Kentucky,⁹ Maine,¹⁰ New Hampshire,¹¹ New York,¹² North Carolina,¹³ Pennsylvania,¹⁴ Rhode Island,¹⁵ South Carolina,¹⁶ Utah,¹⁷ and Washington ^18,19) have coded the occupation data and published studies.

Over the last decade, NIOSH, NCHS, NCI, and the Bureau of the Census have collaborated to improve the quality of the occupational data collected on death certificates; to develop routine,standardized coding of this information by State health departments; and to partially reimburse selected States for the production of these data. Since 1984, a number of States have submitted the information in coded, machine-readable form to NCHS. The first report using these data was a Monthly Vital Statistics Report Supplement, based on the 1984 data from 12 States.²⁰ It described the data and presented cause-specific estimates of relative risk for broad occupation and industry categories for males and females.

The availability of additional years of data and the contributions of additional States make possible this report on occupational mortality for 24 States for 1984 through 1988. The data were sufficient to compute estimates of relative risk for detailed occupation, industry, and cause-of-death categories. The report is more representative of the United States and more current than many of the individual State reports. It is hoped that researchers will find this a useful addition to the occupational mortality surveillance literature.

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