Costs of Hand Injuries for the Economy

Abstract

Introduction: Hand injuries are a frequent occurrence and account in occupational accidents up to 41%. The main reasons for hand injuries are stress, inattention, tiredness, and the use of maintained machinery. For that reason, in the last 10 years, much affords had been carried out in Europe to reduce the numbers of hand injuries. In Austria, the Austrian Workers’ Compensation Board (AUVA) has started in 2014 a prevention campaign to reduce the numbers of hand injuries during work. As well, the “Circle for Leisure Time Hand Injury Prevention” was instituted with the aim to take measures to avoid especially hand injuries during leisure activities. Material and Methods: Hand injuries at work had been analyzed in the years 2010-2011 in respect of nature of the injury, time of the injury, sick leave duration, and cause of injury. Furthermore, the costs for each type of hand injury for the companies and economy had been calculated. Results: Overall, 632.693 injuries had been treated in hospitals of the AUVA. Of these, 174.855 involved hand injuries. Each year, 4.826 new pensions had been because of injuries during work, and 1.224 of these because of an injury of the hand. Total sick leave of all hand injuries amount in total 474.859 days per year, which means 12.3 days per hand accident. In 26% of the cases not powered handheld tools, in 25% (building-) materials, and in 10% machines had been the reason for a hand injury. Hand injuries entail annual costs of €309 million per year. Average costs per hand accident had been €7.778 per patient. Conclusions: Hand injuries are very common and account for up to 41% of all injuries, and they cause annual costs in Austria by €309 million. Therefore, in the last decade, much affords have been done to reduce hand injuries.