Reduce work-related assaults — OSH‑05 Data Methodology and Measurement

Data source

The occupational supplement to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance system (NEISS-Work) captures data on nonfatal work-related injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments (Eds). NIOSH collaborates with U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to collect these data. The NEISS-Work data are collected without regard to consumer product involvement, whereas the CPSC NEISS data that capture product-related injuries exclude work-related injuries.

Sample design

NEISS-Work is a national stratified probability sample of hospitals in the U.S. and its territories that have a minimum of six beds and that operate a 24-hour emergency department. Hospitals in the sample were selected from the approximately 5,300 rural and urban U.S. hospitals after stratification by total annual emergency department visits. Nominally, 67 geographically distributed sample hospitals capture work-related injuries every day of the year (note: the occupational injury hospital sample is a subset (2/3) of the hospital sample used by CPSC for capture of product-related injuries). All treated cases that are identifiable as work-related are captured and information is abstracted from the medical record.

Each case is assigned a statistical weight based on the inverse probability of selection. National estimates are obtained by summing weights for all cases or particular cases of interest. Statistical weights are adjusted within a sample year to account for hospital mergers, hospital closings or withdrawal from NEISS-Work (i.e., less than 67 hospitals reporting information), and incomplete reporting. Statistical weights are adjusted annually based on the number of U.S. hospitals and their total number of ED visits as determined by a census of U.S. hospitals one year prior to the data year.

Case definition

Medical:

Nonfatal injuries treated in an emergency department

Population:

Civilian non-institutionalized workers

Work:

1. Doing work for pay or other compensation, including arriving or leaving work but on the employer's premises, during transportation between locations as a part of the job (excluding commuting to or from home)
2. Doing agricultural production activities
3. Working as a volunteer for an organized group (e.g., volunteer fire department)

Demographics:

All workers without restriction by age, type of employer or industry (e.g., self-employed, private industry, or government), or employer size

Case exclusions

1. Injuries to active duty Military, National Guard, and State Militia
2. Injuries to institutionalized persons including prisoners or mental health patients
3. Common illnesses (e.g., colds and flu) and chronic health conditions
4. Routine drug and alcohol screening
5. Revisits to the same ED for a previously treated injury

Case identification

Work-related cases are identified from admissions information and emergency department chart review by hospital coders. A workers' compensation claim is not required for inclusion. Narrative fields are assigned BLS OIICS Injury event codes. Codes equal to 111, 1214, or 1215 are considered a work-related assault.