Injury Prevention Work Research Articles

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders in tyre factory workers – An observational study

CONTEXT: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs) are considered major public health problems and the leading cause of occupational injury. Activities such as prolonged standing, repetitive task, awkward sitting posture, heavy lifting, pulling, and pushing may result in functional impairment and pain due to poor working conditions and absence of work injury prevention programs. AIM: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of WRMSDs in factory workers. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: An observational study was carried out in a tyre factory in India. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Two hundred and fifty-two (n = 252) male workers aged 21–59 years with at least 1 year of job tenure were included in this observational study. The assessment was done using the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) tool. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Data analysis was done using Chi-square test to calculate the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders. RESULTS: The most commonly affected body regions of factory workers in 12 months were neck and lower back with P = 0.001and P = 0.146, and problems faced in the past 7 days were more common in the lower back and neck with P = 0.004 and 0.001, respectively. This study reported the highest prevalence in the neck (62.7%) and lower back (54.8%). The REBA tool revealed a majority of the workers emerged under the category of high risk. CONCLUSIONS: The study concluded that neck and lower back regions were found to be more commonly affected, and a majority of workers emerged into high-risk category.

Pressure injury prevention practices among medical surgical nurses in a tertiary hospital: An observational and chart audit study.

Pressure injuries are frequently occurring adverse events in hospitals, negatively impacting patient safety and quality of care. Most pressure injuries are avoidable if effective prevention strategies are used. However, the extent to which various settings influence their use of prevention strategies is unknown. The aim of this study was to describe and compare pressure injury prevention strategies used by medical and surgical nurses in the Chinese context. In this observational study, we used semi‐structured observations with chart audits to collect data in two medical and two surgical wards in a tertiary hospital from June to December 2020. Observations were patient‐focused; any prevention practices the patient received were recorded, and a chart audit was used to identify documented prevention strategies. The frequency of each prevention strategy was reported, and differences between medical and surgical wards were analysed using independent t‐test or χ2 test. A total of 577 patients (n = 294, 50.9% medical; n = 283, 49.1% surgical) were observed and their charts audited. Risk assessment was completed on admission for all patients. Repositioning was the most frequently used strategy, with about 84% (n = 486) patients being repositioned regularly. However, skin care, nutritional risk screening and the use of support surfaces were suboptimal. Patient education was not commonly observed but was documented in 75% (n = 433) of audited charts. More medical patients' skin was kept clean and hydrated, but more surgical patients received barrier creams, had a support surface and received more nutrition support and if a prone position was used, they were more likely to be turned after 2 hr and to be repositioned after sitting in a chair for an hour. Prevention strategies were more likely to be documented in surgical patients' charts. Despite pressure injury prevention guideline recommendations provided various prevention strategies for nurses to apply, the observed use of some strategies such as nutrition, skin care and support surfaces was not ideal. Nurses relied heavily on repositioning for pressure injury prevention. Most pressure injury prevention practices need improvement although surgical patients generally received better preventative care. These findings can facilitate clinicians and nurse managers when tailoring future pressure injury prevention work.

Objectives and strategies of unintentional injury prevention and control in 31 provincial Children's Development Outlines in China

Objective: To landscape the contents, similarities, and differences of the objectives and strategies for unintentional injury prevention and control in the national and 31 provincial Children's Development Outlines from 2011 to 2020, and propose relevant suggestions. Methods: The content analysis method was used to extract, encode and classify the objective and strategy text of unintentional injury in all Children's Development Outlines and construct the theme of strategy text combined with the '5E' Injury Prevention Framework. Taking the national Children's Development Outline as the benchmark, the relevant contents of 31 provincial Children's Development Outlines in the same period were compared. Results: All Children's Development Outlines took child injury prevention and control as the primary objective set in health, environment, and safety. The national and most provincial Children's Development Outlines set this goal in health, while others put it in environment or safety. Reducing injury-induced death, disability and occurrence were designated as the main content in the objective of child injury prevention and control. However, there were no quantitative requirements for injury occurrence and disability in all the provincial outlines. The themes of unintentional injury prevention and control strategies in all Children's Development Outlines could be divided into the mechanism, law enforcement, education, environment, engineering, first aid, assessment, and economic strategies. Mechanism strategy was the primary domain, followed by law enforcement, education, environment, and engineering strategies, but less attention was put on first aid, assessment, and economic strategies. The unintentional injury prevention and control strategy in the provincial Children's Development Outlines was mainly based on the national outline. Still, it also varied with some emphasis and refinement in different items among all the provinces. Conclusions: Children's Development Outline is a vital policy guarantee for implementing child injury prevention and control work. Developing a system involving good primary data, mechanisms and strategies, law enforcement, and environmental and engineering-related strategies for more common types of child injuries has been attached to great importance. Actively carrying out assessments and encouraging the adoption of more economical strategies could further enrich and improve the unintentional injury prevention and control in Children's Development Outline and promote the progress of related work in China.

Results of a tri-national online survey on the current status of sportsinjury prevention among members of the German-Speaking Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Society (GOTS).

To assess the current opinions and state of knowledge in primary sports injury prevention among members of the German-Speaking Society for Orthopaedic and Traumatologic Sports Medicine (GOTS). On 21 August 2019, a web-based questionnaire was sent to the members of the tri-national society GOTS (Austria, Germany and Switzerland). The survey was online until 21 November 2019 and included twenty-two questions, which were divided into five sections: 1) general importance of prevention (n = 4), 2) specifications of the study population (n = 3), 3) implementation of prevention (n = 8), 4) improvement opportunities in prevention (n = 4) and 5) future research areas (n = 3). A total of 272 participants completed the survey, representing a total survey participation of 17.7 % of all members. The study population consisted of orthopaedic surgeons (55 % with surgical and 21 % with non-operative orientation), medical students (10 %), physical therapists (8 %) and sports scientists (4 %). Ninety-four percent of all participants stated that they considered the importance of sports injury prevention to be "very high" (68 %) or "high" (26 %). However, almost 70 % of all participants stated that they spend less than one hour per week on injury prevention work. The term "prevention" was clearly defined and practicable for only 40 %, understandable but difficult to implement for 51 %, and unclear and difficult to implement for 9 % of the participants. Seventy-two percent of respondents were aware of existing prevention programs such as "Stop-X" or "FIFA 11 +", whereas 28 % of participants were uninformed regarding these programs. A strong divergence was identified between participants' perception of the importance of sports injury prevention and the existing implementation of preventive measures. Future funding of prevention programs, expansion of research strategies for injury prevention and better financial reimbursement are of utmost importance.

Predictors of long-term opioid use and opioid use disorder among construction workers: Analysis of claims data.

Construction workers have high rates of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, which lead to frequent opioid use and opioid use disorder (OUD). This paper quantified the incidence of opioid use and OUD among construction workers with and without musculoskeletal disorders. We conducted a retrospective study using union health claims from January 2015 to June 2018 from 19,909 construction workers. Claims for diagnoses of chronic musculoskeletal disorders, acute musculoskeletal injuries, musculoskeletal surgery, and other conditions were linked to new opioid prescriptions. We examined the effects of high doses (≥50 morphine mg equivalents per day), large supply (more than 7 days per fill), long-term opioid use (60 or more days supplied within a calendar quarter), and musculoskeletal disorders, on the odds of a future OUD. There were high rates (42.8% per year) of chronic musculoskeletal disorders among workers, of whom 24.1% received new opioid prescriptions and 6.3% received long-term opioid prescriptions per year. Workers receiving opioids for chronic musculoskeletal disorders had the highest odds of future OUD: 4.71 (95% confidence interval 3.09-7.37); workers prescribed long-term opioids in any calendar quarter had a nearly 10-fold odds of developing an OUD. Among construction workers, opioids initiated for musculoskeletal pain were strongly associated with incident long-term opioid use and OUD. Musculoskeletal pain from physically demanding work is likely one driver of the opioid epidemic in occupations like construction. Prevention of work injuries and alternative pain management are needed for workers at risk for musculoskeletal injuries.

Impact of work injury on early retirement among older Australian workers

AbstractA total of 274 Australian workers aged 45 years and above completed a Work, Retirement, and Health Survey. Results indicated that older workers with work injury have significantly lower expected retirement age compared to those without work injury. The results also indicated that this pattern is still apparent among intrinsically work motivated older workers with high score on self-reported work centrality. Older workers with work injury appear more vulnerable to premature retirement, which has significant negative social and economic consequences for workers, employers, and rehabilitation professionals. It also appears there is a complex relationship between ageing and work injury and the need for rehabilitation professionals to consider work injury prevention strategies for older workers.

Research on the needs of vocational high school students for injury prevention and emergency skills education

Background: Objective to investigate the needs of junior high school students for injury prevention awareness and emergency skills education, so as to provide reference basis for junior high school students to carry out injury prevention work. Methods: A total of 1079 vocational middle school students were selected by stratified cluster sampling. The content of the questionnaire includes: basic demographic information, cognition of injury-related risk factors, demand for injury prevention education, mastery of first aid skills, etc. Results: 76.2% believed that there were potential risk factors leading to injury accidents in life, 397 (36.8%) chose yes, rarely, 303 (28.1%) chose yes, generally, and 122 (11.3%) chose yes, many .Among the places considered most vulnerable to injury, the top five were road/street, off-campus sports ground, business district, school and residential district, with 79.1%, 41.6%, 33.1%, 29.2% and 19.6% respectively. The potential risk factors considered by students are divided into four aspects. The proportion of vocational middle school students in the judgment and selection of potential risk factors are lack of safety awareness (54.9%) and excessive learning pressure (41.2%) respectively. Parents ignore their children (34.0%) and family relationship is not harmonious (31.3%) were the top two risk factors for potential injury to the family. The top two risk factors for potential injury in schools were bad school atmosphere (37.7%) and lack of school safety education (36.9%).For potential hazardous environmental factors, unsafe road environment (64.8%) and unsafe sports facilities (44.8%) ranked top two.89.0% of the students think it necessary to attend schools or other institutions to carry out safety education or activity, hope schools provide injury prevention education aspect, the top six were bullying (85.6%), food hygiene (80.3%), traffic injuries (74.4%), fraud (65.1%), electric shock (65.1%) and first aid (63.5%), especially the bullying of these safety education.78.9% of the students said they had received first aid training, and CPR (86.5%), first aid for drowning (49.4%), bandaging (42.2%) and hemostasis (42.0%) were the top four first aid skills of the middle school students surveyed. The most common reasons for not mastering first aid skills were forgetting after learning (33.5%) and too short training time (29.7%). Conclusion: Junior high school students need to improve their education on potential injury risk factors in life and emergency treatment in the face of injury.It is necessary to carry out injury prevention and emergency skills education among high school students in vocational schools.

Modified Delphi study to determine optimal data elements for inclusion in a pilot violence and injury observatory in Cape Town, South Africa.

IntroductionViolence and injury observatories (VIOs) are primarily a tool to aid safety and security stakeholders within both governments and non-governmental organisations to develop interventions focused on violence prevention and related to citizen safety issues. VIOs are centres that focus on collating and integrating violence-related injury data sources to monitor, evaluate, and study the progression of violence and crime in a targeted region. In preparation for implementing a pilot VIO in Cape Town, we sought to determine the optimal indicators, datasets and research priorities for inclusion.MethodsThe study employed a two-round Delphi study conducted via email. The Delphi panel constituted 21 participants. This included, but was not limited, to senior members of staff in the Provincial Health Services in Emergency Medicine and Disaster Medicine, representatives from relevant data stakeholders and non-government actors working in violence reduction.ResultsFourteen violence-related indicators and 12 violence-related datasets reached consensus. Additionally, research priorities were identified within 16 research themes across five different types of violence: elder abuse, youth violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and armed violence. Finally, four data-sharing questions raised by panellists after round one were answered by the Delphi panel following the second round.DiscussionThis study provides a research priority framework for violence and injury prevention work within South Africa. These expert-identified violence and injury indicators and datasets are context-appropriate and may serve to guide the development of additional VIOs within the region.

Future challenges and solutions for safety in China: China CDC’s exploration of injury prevention strategies

Abstract As an important component of worldwide injury prevention, China has made great contribution to the development. China is serving as a model for other countries in the world, especially developing countries, and China’s experience has great implications for them. Besides the description of the present situation and trends of China’s injury prevention work and review for its development history, this paper has also introduced the existing issues and the current challenges, and informed the efforts of the staff in related field to find solutions from different aspects. All of them jointly boosted the development of global injury prevention.

Preventive behaviour at work – A concept analysis

Background: Preventive behaviour is a significant intervention target in order to promote health at work, but has never been discussed in an occupational perspective.Aim: To clarify the concept of preventive behaviour at work.Methods: The Walker and Avant (2011) method was used to conduct the study.Results: The attributes of the concept are: (1) compliance with safety rules and procedures, (2) proactivity, participation, engagement and initiatives related to prevention, (3) maintenance of physical environment, (4) concern for social environment and (5) reflexivity and analytical skills of work situations. The analysis also identified the antecedents and the consequences of the concept that are all related to either the person, the environment or the occupation.Conclusion: Preventive behaviour occurs when a worker shows an active involvement to comply with safety rules and procedures of his trade, takes initiatives to improve prevention, preserves his physical environment, communicates with his peers and analyses work situations before committing to it.Significance: Occupational therapists have a central role in primary prevention of work injuries and have the expertise to help develop each of the five attributes of the concept of preventive behaviour.

Statutory prevention of work injuries in Italy: an effectiveness evaluation with interrupted time series analysis in a sample of 5000 manufacturing plants from the Veneto region

ObjectivesAccording to Italian law, prevention of injuries in the workplace falls under the National Health System Service of Prevention, Health and Safety at Work (SPISAL). In a sample of about...

Prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal discomfort and its impact on activity: A survey of beverage factory workers in Eastern Nigeria.

Bottling workers maintain awkward postures while performing machine paced repetitive motions in many of their job tasks and therefore are predisposed to work related musculoskeletal discomfort (WMSD). There is a paucity of literature on prevalence and impact of musculoskeletal discomfort among this occupational group. This study was conducted among Eastern Nigerian beverage factory workers to investigate prevalence of WMSD as a first step towards risk factors investigation and ergonomic future intervention. A total of 301 workers (8 workstations) completed a modified Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire in this cross sectional survey. Twelve month prevalence of WMSD was 91.4% and 65.1% had been prevented from doing activity at home or workplace by WMSD in the past 12 months. Shoulder, neck and upper back in that order were the most common complaints. Prevalence of WMSD in body regions were associated with age but not with gender except for neck, upper back, shoulder, and ankle/foot complaints. WMSDs are very high among beverage bottling workers. Investigation into the prevailing risk factors especially the work posture and work organization/work psychosocial factors for possible risk exposure in these workers is essential for ergonomic intervention towards work injury prevention.

Application and Developmental Strategies for Community-Based Injury Prevention Programs of the International Safe Communities Movement in Korea.

Safety of humans is an important factor that affects health overall, and injuries are one of the major public-health problems in the world. The purposes of this study were to describe the International safe Community movement which contributes to the injury prevention and safety promotion all over the world, and to identify out the application and developmental strategies for Korea. A review was done of previous research, reviews, and reports on the history, concepts, basic principles, and recommendations for actions of the Safe Community. For this study, the application strategies of the International Safe Community movement in Korea were examined to deduce the strengths of the safe Community program. Community-based injury prevention work according to the International Safe Community model is a successful and cost-effective way of reducing injuries in the community. Through the International Safe Community program, communities are able to realize a healthy community and achieve improved quality of lives for the people, which is the ultimate objective of the Safe Community model. In addition, it will contribute to the economic vitalization and gain through energy and enhancement of productivity of people.

Studies to evaluate the outcome of DM in the public and private sector in China

Disability management (DM) is quite a fresh idea to Mainland China (Mainland). The government has thus turned to professionals from outside Mainland, i.e. Hong Kong (HK). Nevertheless, since HK is under ‘one country, two systems’ policy, it has developed an approach differing from that of Mainland. A DM pilot study was jointly conducted by the Guangdong Provincial Work Injury Rehabilitation Center (GPWIRC) and the Hong Kong Workers’ Health Centre (HKWHC) to review the developments of DM reform in China and HK. In China, the foundation of DM approach is the work injury insurance system. Under this system, GPWIRC established her services to provide work injury prevention and occupational rehabilitation as a pilot study in early 2000s. Following this pilot project, GPWIRC further develops work and social rehabilitation and work injury prevention in the context of the labor insurance system. While in HK, mainly NGOs, insurance companies and some public organizations contribute to the promotion of DM approach. On the other hand, the study also reveals similar challenges that Mainland and HK are currently facing in the development of DM, such as professional's training in local rehabilitation, the underdeveloped reimbursement system and etc.. The aforementioned pilot study shows that DM's principles are accepted at a national level and some specific public organizations in China context. There thus is a research need to study the current DM development situation in the private sector. By doing so, an ongoing study, namely “Demographic change and private sector disability management in Australia, Canada, China and Switzerland. A comparative study” launched in Nov. 2013. Through this research, questions of process and procedure of the DM system used in the company, benefits gained and drawbacks encountered by the companies, and the strengths and weaknesses in the current DM systems will be answered. Other than that, data will also be collected from the employees’ perspective on their job satisfaction, physical and mental health, employee morale and workplace attendance and etc.. The primary result is expected in 2016.

Epidemiological characteristics of burn workers in Hunan Province

To understand the epidemiological characteristics of workers who are burn patients, and to provide basis for prevention and treatment of burn at work. We investigated 4 078 burn workers in 9 cities in Hunan provincial enterprises, and different trades managed by municipal government from January 1st, 2005 to December 31st, 2010. The incidence rate of employment injury was 94.84 per 10 thousand workers each year in Hunan. That of the enterprises directly managed by Hunan Medical Insurance Bureau was 93.71 per 10 thousand workers each year, and that of the enterprises managed by Medical Insurance Bureaus of cities or districts was 95.02 per 10 thousand workers each year. The burn incidence accounted for 2.00% of the total work injury in Hunan Province (7.35% in the enterprises directly managed by Hunan Medical Insurance Bureau and 1.39% in districts and industries). There were 4 078 burn patients from the sorted units [1 823 out-patients and 2 255 in-patients; 3 498 males (85.78%) and 580 females (14.22%) with age of (38.64±11.56) years]. The ratio between males and females was 6.03:1. Among the 4 078 patients, 2 979 were from the rural area (71.78%), with 1 100 out-patients and 1 379 in-patients. The burn was mostly mild and moderate (64.66%), and mainly occurred on the face, head, arms, and legs (61.55%). The main causes of burn were heating power (74.1%), chemical stuff (14.37%), and electric power (10.78%). The death rate was 1.42%. The burn accidents often happened between July and September. The average time from being burned to be in the hospital for treatment was 3.91 hours. Burn accidents, especially mild and moderate burn, occur mainly in young, married and poorly educated males from rural areas. Heating power, chemical stuff, and electric power are the key causes for burn. Work injury prevention measures should be improved in high risk enterprises.

Parental educational level and injury incidence and mortality among foreign-born children: a cohort study with 46 years follow-up

:Background:Injury risk during childhood and adolescence vary depending on socio-economic factors. The aim of this study was to study if the risk of fatal and non-fatal unintentional injuries among foreign-born children was similar across parental educational level or not. Methods:In this retrospective cohort study we followed 907,335 children between 1961 and 2007 in Sweden. We established the cohort by linkage between Swedish national registers including cause of death register and in-patient register, through unique Personal Identification Numbers. The main exposure variable was parental (maternal and paternal) educational level. The cohorts was followed from start date of follow-up period, or date of birth whichever occurred last, until exit date from the cohort, which was date of hospitalization or death due to unintentional injury, first emigration, death due to other causes than injury or end of follow-up, whichever came first. We calculated hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) by Cox proportional hazards regression models.Results:Overall, we found 705 and 78,182 cases of death and hospitalization due to unintentional injuries, respectively. Risk of death and hospitalization due to unintentional injuries was statistically significantly 1.48 (95% CI: 1.24-1.78) and 1.10 (95% CI: 1.08-1.12) times higher among children with lowest parental educational level (9 years and shorter years of study) compared to children with highest parental educational level (+13 years of study). We found similar results when stratified our study group by sex of children, by maternal and paternal educational level separately, and injury type (traffic-related, fall, poisoning, burn and drowning).Conclusions:It seems injury prevention work against unintentional injuries is less effective among children with low parental education compared with those with higher parental education. We recommend designing specific preventive interventions aiming at children with low parental education.

Socio-economic and occupational determinants of work injury absence

Measures of socio-economic position, such as education, occupational class and income, are well-known determinants of ill-health, injury and sickness absence. The aim was to analyse socio-economic and occupational determinants of work injury absence and their contribution to overall socio-economic inequalities in all-cause sickness absence. A register-based follow-up study included municipal employees of the City of Helsinki aged 25-59 years in 2004. The number of participants was 16,471 women and 5033 men. The mean follow-up time was 3.0 years. Education, occupational class and individual income were used as measures of socio-economic position. The main outcome was medically confirmed work injury and all-cause sickness absence of ≥4 days. Inequality indices were calculated using Poisson regression analysis. High education, occupational class and individual income were consistently associated with lower work injury absence among both women and men. The inequalities in work injury absence were larger than in all-cause sickness absence, especially among men, but the contribution to overall socio-economic inequalities was limited. Among women, bus drivers, cooks and hospital attendants had the highest rates of work injuries. Among men, youth mentors, firemen and janitors had the highest rates. Our results indicate that relative socio-economic inequalities in work injury absence are larger than in all-cause sickness absence. Prevention of work injuries provides a source of reducing socio-economic inequalities in health, but their effect is not very large. Prevention of work injuries should be targeted to lower white-collar and manual workers and vulnerable occupations.

Keynote

It is well documented that regular physical activity can improve health and quality of life. There is however, a cost to physical activity–namely the burden of injury. Injuries resulting from sports and physical activities are a significant health problem in many countries, including Canada. After recognising the scale of the problem, in 1979, the government of Quèbec adopted the Act Respecting Safety in Sports to significantly contribute to the establishment of safe environments. Through its mission that is to “foster the development of recreation and sport in a safe and healthy environment and promote an active lifestyle for all Quebecers”, the Quèbec Ministry of Education, Leisure, and Sport (QMELS) supervises the execution of this act. In accordance with it, one of the QMELS's directives is to “ensure that the safety and physical security and well-being of participants are provided for during sports and physical activities”. To realise its mission, the QMELS developed and implemented safety measures based on the 3 E's of injury prevention: Education, Enforcement, and Engineering. The aim of this presentation is to show how different and combined safety measures based on the 3 E's of injury prevention were developed and implemented to reduce the incidence of injuries in alpine skiers, snowboarders, and ice hockey players in Quèbec. More specifically, strategies such as the promotion of personal protective equipment use, regulations, and environmental modifications will be discussed. The importance of having access to well-documented facts on the injury problem at hand, as well as on the effects of the potential safety measures will be addressed. Based on our Quèbec experience and from published literature in the field of injury prevention and safety promotion, some factors influencing the adoption of healthy public policy will be presented. Finally, an answer to the question “Do the 3 E's of injury prevention work?” will be suggested. It is well documented that regular physical activity can improve health and quality of life. There is however, a cost to physical activity–namely the burden of injury. Injuries resulting from sports and physical activities are a significant health problem in many countries, including Canada. After recognising the scale of the problem, in 1979, the government of Quèbec adopted the Act Respecting Safety in Sports to significantly contribute to the establishment of safe environments. Through its mission that is to “foster the development of recreation and sport in a safe and healthy environment and promote an active lifestyle for all Quebecers”, the Quèbec Ministry of Education, Leisure, and Sport (QMELS) supervises the execution of this act. In accordance with it, one of the QMELS's directives is to “ensure that the safety and physical security and well-being of participants are provided for during sports and physical activities”. To realise its mission, the QMELS developed and implemented safety measures based on the 3 E's of injury prevention: Education, Enforcement, and Engineering. The aim of this presentation is to show how different and combined safety measures based on the 3 E's of injury prevention were developed and implemented to reduce the incidence of injuries in alpine skiers, snowboarders, and ice hockey players in Quèbec. More specifically, strategies such as the promotion of personal protective equipment use, regulations, and environmental modifications will be discussed. The importance of having access to well-documented facts on the injury problem at hand, as well as on the effects of the potential safety measures will be addressed. Based on our Quèbec experience and from published literature in the field of injury prevention and safety promotion, some factors influencing the adoption of healthy public policy will be presented. Finally, an answer to the question “Do the 3 E's of injury prevention work?” will be suggested.

Socio-economic risk factors for injuries in Swedish children and adolescents: A national study over 15 years

Few studies have assessed if Sweden's injury prevention work has been equally effective for children of different socio-economic backgrounds. The goal of this paper is to review the country's injury rates for children over time, stratified by socio-economic status (SES), to see if the effects are similar across SES levels. This study employs a retrospective case-control study design, using data from the hospitalisation records of 51,225 children, which were linked to family socio-economic data. Children and adolescents in families receiving social welfare benefits, and those living with single parents and mothers with less education had higher risks of injuries leading to hospitalisation. The population-based safety work over the past decades seems to have had only minor effects on reducing the impact of socio-economic based difference in injury risks to younger Swedes.

NEW ZEALAND ESTIMATES OF THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC COST OF WORK-RELATED INJURIES

BackgroundWork-related fatal and serious non-fatal injury rates in New Zealand are static and a number of prevention initiatives are being developed. The Department of Labour's State of Workplace Health and...