Intramural and extramural research/improvements

Beth Rogers

Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists Counting Work-related Injuries and Illnesses: Taking Steps to Close the Gaps II April 17-18, 2013 Washington, D.C.

Overview

 Background  SOII history and outputs  Research goals and results  Recommendations and further research 2

Background

  1970s: Began Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII); periodic user concerns led to ROSH and expanded scope Mid 2000s: Micro-record comparisons of SOII and workers’ comp (WC) report undercount:  Rosenman et al. (2006)   Boden and Ozonoff (2008) 2008 and 2010: BLS reports on research 3

Congressional Action

  Hearings Additions to appropriations  BLS ($1 million for SOII undercount research)   Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Request for GAO study of the accuracy of recordkeeping on employers’ OSHA logs 4

What is the SOII?

 Mandatory annual establishment survey  Counts OSHA-recordable nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses  Based on OSHA records employers keep during the year  Includes employers not otherwise required to keep records  Collected soon after end of the year 5

Unique aspects of the SOII

 Definitions come from OSHA  Consistent definitions and procedures across states  Worker injuries and illnesses are infrequent events  Rate 3.5 cases per 100 full-time equivalent workers  Many employers report zero cases 6

SOII output

  Annual establishment totals and rates by industry  “Summary” estimates Case circumstances and worker characteristics for cases requiring days away from work  “Case and demographic” estimates  Microdata undercount studies have been based on the latter 7

Criticisms of SOII

 Limited data on workplace illnesses  Restricted survey scope  Cases reported elsewhere but not in SOII  Cases reported neither in SOII nor in other systems 8

Defining the undercount

  SOII undercount: Failure to capture cases that are within the scope of the survey Total public burden undercount: Failure to report any occupational injury or illness  Focus of research – SOII undercount 9

Initial undercount research

 In 2008, BLS initiated three types of research projects: matching, employer interviews and multisource  Conclusion of initial undercount research  2012 SOII Undercount Research Meeting  Results and recommendations 10

Other research

 Nestoriak and Pierce  Compared SOII and WC data in KY and WI  Explored three matching strategies – Macro – Micro – Hybrid  Implications for improving SOII 11

WC-SOII matching

 Match and analyze microdata (KY, WA, CA)  Robust evidence of an undercount but measuring the magnitude is difficult  40%-70% SOII capture rate  Issues matching administrative and survey data  Issues with WC data  Issues with the SOII 12

Employer interviews

   Explore possible reasons for differences in reporting cases on OSHA logs, SOII, and State WC claims (KY, WA) Loosely structured questionnaire, in person visits Interviews provide qualitative context but no quantitative information 13

Multisource enumeration

    Using multiple data sources to enumerate certain case types (CA, MA, WA) Data from emergency department visits, hospital discharges, WC, SOII, others Value in multisource for State-based surveillance and topical research National multisource surveillance is not feasible (cost and consistent data availability) 14

Reasons for the discrepancy

 SOII appears to capture everything on the OSHA log  Types of cases more likely to be missed by SOII  Much of undercount still unexplained 15

Consensus recommendations

 Expand SOII data collection  Improve coding consistency of SOII  Work with OSHA to enhance recordkeeping  SOII supplements (CPS supplement)  Future research ideas (undercount trends, variations by state, employer attributes and practices) 16

Second round of research

 Interview a large number of employers in MN, NY, OR, WA  Goal: Quantitative measures of employer characteristics, recordkeeping practices   Match WC-SOII for 12 years in WA  Goal: Analyze undercount trends over time Pilot test auto-coding of SOII data  Goal: Improve classification consistency 17

Other recommended enhancements

 Publish hospitalization data from OSHA logs  Goal: Improve collection/reporting of these data  Collect and publish case data for DJTR  Goal: Pilot test collection, estimation, and dissemination  Goal: Evaluate effect on current DAFW case data 18

Future research ideas

 Expand auto-coding  Follow-back studies to capture injury and illness updates and incidents occurring late in the year  Expand collection of DJTR case detail  Explore ways to improve employer recordkeeping 19

Contact Information Beth Rogers

Occupational Safety and Health Statistics

www.bls.gov/iif

202-691-5098 [email protected]