Introduction and Guide to the Data Tables for Occupational Health Indicators
Summary: This document presents 19 indicators that describe the occupational health status of the working population and provides data about these indicators from 16 states and, where available, the United States. The data are from 2000 through 2003. Data from subsequent years will be added as they become available.
Background: More than 135 million individuals work in the United States. Every year, millions of these workers are injured on the job or become ill as a result of exposure to health hazards at work. These work-related injuries and illnesses result in substantial human and economic costs not only for workers and employers, but also for society at large. It has been estimated that the direct and indirect costs of work-related injuries and illnesses exceed $170 billion annually. Work-related injuries and illnesses can be prevented. Successful approaches to making workplaces safer and healthier begin with having the data necessary to understand the problem.
Indicator Development: Recognizing the need for improved consistency and availability of occupational disease and injury surveillance data, a workgroup of state CSTE representatives and federal occupational health professionals developed a standard set of “Occupational Health Indicators” (OHIs) that could be used to measure the baseline health of working populations and changes that take place over time. The workgroup defined a set of 19 OHIs, along with a set of employment demographic measures. These definitions and a standardized methodology for their calculation were compiled in a document titled Occupational Health Indicators: A Guide for Tracking Work-Related Health Conditions and Their Determinants The 19 OHIs were selected because of their importance to public health and the availability of easily obtainable statewide data in most states.
Thirteen states then piloted the generation of data from 2000 for these 19 OHIs. The states’ results and comparison national data, where available, were published by CSTE in a September 2005 document, Putting Data to Work: Occupational Health Indicators from Thirteen Pilot States for 2000.
Guide to navigating this document: This document updates the September 2005 document with OHI data for 2001-2003 and includes contributions from two additional states. Data for 2003 and 2004 will be added in the near future. The 19 OHIs are listed below. Clicking on an indicator will provide a link to the corresponding section. Each section includes a brief definition of the specific measures* of that OHI (e.g. number and rate), the source(s) of the data used to calculate the indicator measures (including a link to detailed description of each data source), a description of the public health significance of that indicator, and links to the data tables and figures. The tables and figures show OHI results by state and, when available, the US, for 2000 and 2001. Technical notes are included to explain important data issues involved in generating the indicators.
*Some OHIs include more than one measure, for example, the pneumoconiosis OHI includes measures for specific kinds of pneumoconiosis including asbestosis and silicosis.