Putting data to work: occupational health indicators for Massachusetts.
Authors
Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Source
Boston, MA: Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 2009 Apr; :1-10
Abstract
More than three million individuals work in Massachusetts in over 200,000 workplaces. Each year, thousands of these workers are injured on the job or become ill as a result of exposure to health and safety hazards at work. These work-related health conditions results in substantial human and economic costs not only for workers and employers but also for society at large.(1) Workers' compensation claims alone in Massachusetts cost approximately $935 million in 2006.(2) Work-related injuries and illnesses can be prevented. Successful approaches to making the workplace safer begin with having the data necessary to understand the problems. In 2003, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) recommended a set of occupational health indicators for use by the states.(3) These indicators are a set of common public health surveillance measures that allow states to collect and report available occupational illness, injury and risk data. Computed over time, these indicators should allow states to track trends in the occupational health status of the working population and guide efforts to prevent work-related injuries and illnesses. Here we present a profile of the Massachusetts workforce and thirteen occupational health indicators for the Commonwealth based on the most recent data available for each indicator. Whenever possible, we also present national data and information by race and ethnicity. The information used to generate these thirteen indicators is gathered from a variety of existing state data sources - as no single data source is adequate to characterize occupational health concerns in the state. Combining information from multiple sources into a single document provides a composite picture of the occupational health status of working people in Massachusetts. Given the limitations of the data sources currently available to capture work-related health conditions in Massachusetts, most of the indicators in this report are believed to be conservative - i.e. tends to underestimate the extent of the problem. Technical notes and a description of the data sources, including the limitations of each of the data sources used in generating these indicators are included at the end of the report.
Keywords
Injuries; Injury-prevention; Health-care; Medical-care; Health-standards; Public-health; Occupational-health; Diseases; Disease-prevention; Surveillance-programs; Data-processing; Risk-factors; Information-processing; Information-systems; Standards; Emergency-care; Emergency-treatment; Needlestick-injuries; Demographic-characteristics; Statistical-analysis; Lost-work-days; Worker-health; Statistical-quality-control
Contact
Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Occupational Health Surveillance Program, 250 Washington Street, 6th Floor, Boston, MA 02108
Funding Type
Cooperative Agreement
Identifying No.
Cooperative-Agreement-Number-U60-OH-008490
Priority Area
Healthcare and Social Assistance
Source Name
Putting data to work: occupational health indicators for Massachusetts.
Performing Organization
Massachusetts State Department of Public Health
