What is Work-RISQS?
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Work-RISQS is an interactive query system for users to find out how many work-related
injuries and illnesses were treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments in a year. The user
can select specific worker characteristics, types of injuries, or injury circumstances when they
make a query.
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What data are available from Work-RISQS?
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Users can get a single specific injury/illness estimate or an injury/illness rate based on
hours worked in a year. Tables listing multiple estimates or rates of injuries/illnesses for
selected characteristics are also available.
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What injuries or illnesses are counted in Work-RISQS?
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The injury or illness must be:
- work-related
- nonfatal
- treated in a U.S. hospital emergency department
- to a civilian worker
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What is a work-related injury or illness?
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The injury or illness is work-related if it occurred from doing:
- Work for pay or other compensation
- Work activities on a farm or ranch
- Work as a volunteer for an organized group (e.g., volunteer fire dept.)
More detailed guidelines...
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Where does Work-RISQS get its data?
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The data are collected for NIOSH from a small sample of U.S.
hospital emergency departments through an occupational supplement to the National Electronic Injury
Surveillance System (NEISS-Work). In each hospital, a staff member reads the
emergency room charts and identifies work-related cases.
For these cases they abstract information such
as patient age and sex, type of injury, and how the injury occurred,
but without names or other personal identifiers.
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What is a Work-RISQS national injury estimate?
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The occupational injuries and illnesses treated in each of the
sample hospitals commonly represent similar cases seen in other
hospitals throughout the U.S. where we do not collect data. Because the
hospitals from which we collect data were chosen in a
statistically random fashion, we can extrapolate the cases we collect by using a statistical
weight or multiplier to a national estimate. This process is not perfect and there is error
associated with the sampling and extrapolation. Hence Work-RISQS results are only estimates.
We use the confidence interval to express how large the error about this estimate is likely
to be.
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How is a national injury rate calculated?
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A Work-RISQS injury estimate is an estimate of the number of injuries
and illnesses treated in an ED. A Work-RISQS injury rate is the
estimated injury/illness number divided by the number of hours during a year
that workers were on the job. For example, in 1998 there were an estimated
3,559,700 work-related injuries and illnesses treated in U.S. EDs which was a rate of about
2.8 injuries and illnesses for every 100 full-time equivalent workers.
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Why are rates based on FTE and not the number of people who worked?
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Rates determined by using hours worked (i.e., FTE) provide a better assessment of risk for
many groups of workers such as youth or older workers who may work primarily part-time.
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What does the confidence interval mean?
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The Work-RISQS estimates are based on a small sample of about 67 hospitals
among the more than 5,000 U.S. hospitals. Selection of a different set of
hospitals likely will give a different estimate. However, if each random
sample is reasonably similar and representative of all hospitals, the
estimates should fall within a relatively narrow range of values. The
confidence interval represents the range that an estimate would be expected
to fall within 95 times out of 100. In the Work-RISQS tables the confidence
bounds are expressed as an amount to subtract or add to the estimate. Thus,
other Work-RISQS estimates are not likely to be statistically different if
they fall within the interval of the estimate plus and minus the confidence
bounds. For example, the 1998 total injury/illness estimate was 3,559,500 ± 605,100.
Therefore 95% of the time a new estimate would be expected to be in the range of 2,954,400 to
4,164,600 injuries/illnesses.
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Why are some estimates or rates not reported in my query results?
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For injury events that may be very rare or are localized in only one part of the U.S.,
the ability for Work-RISQS to produce reliable national estimates may be poor. Thus, Work-RISQS
does not report national estimates that do not meet certain minimum reporting requirements to
insure reasonable data quality.
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What is not available from Work-RISQS?
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Work-RISQS counts only about a third of work-related injuries and illnesses because it
does NOT include injuries and illnesses treated in doctors' offices, occupational medicine
clinics, or other medical venues outside of a hospital emergency department. Also, Work-RISQS
only includes injuries to civilians. It does not include injuries to active duty military or
reservists in training.
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Can I get injury estimates by state or region?
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No. Estimates are only available for the nation as a whole.
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Can I get data for a specific occupation or industry?
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No. At this time, occupation or industry information is not available at Work-RISQS.
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Are Work-RISQS injuries and illnesses reportable under OSHA guidelines?
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Work-RISQS uses a broader definition of what is a work-related injury or
illness, but generally uses OSHA reporting guidelines as the backbone for
data collection. Work-RISQS also includes cases for workers who are not
under OSHA's jurisdiction or reporting requirements.
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Why does a Work-RISQS estimate differ from a published estimate that used the same data?
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Published estimates of work-related injuries and illnesses that used NEISS
work-related injury and illness data may have been prepared with early
versions or subsets of the Work-RISQS' data set that were more rigorously
edited or restricted in scope, or reporting practices and procedures may
have changed slightly. However, estimates are generally the same.
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How does Work-RISQS data differ from BLS occupational injury & illness data?
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The NEISS-Work data that Work-RISQS queries and the Bureau of Labor
Statistics annual occupational injury and
illness survey provide complementary views of the injury/illness burden of
U.S. workers. The BLS provides annual estimates of occupational injuries and
illnesses that required medical treatment, but not restricted to a
particular medical venue such as an ED. BLS estimates are only for workers
in private industry and only include injuries and illnesses that are OSHA
reportable. Some of the detailed information available from NEISS-Work data, such as
age and sex, is only available for lost-work time cases in the BLS survey.
Estimates of injury and illness rates from the BLS annual survey are based
on worker population estimates from the survey, whereas Work-RISQS
calculates rates by using worker population estimates from the Current
Population Survey, a separate survey of U.S. employment.
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Are there privacy restrictions on Work-RISQS data?
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Yes. Thus, the Work-RISQS data can be used for aggregate statistical reporting and analysis
only. The data reports available through Work-RISQS are for public use and do not include
personal information that would identify an individual.
Because release of an individual's identity or health-related information is expressly prohibited
by the Privacy Act, users will:
- Use the Work-RISQS data for aggregate or summary statistical reporting and analysis only.
- Not link Work-RISQS query results with individually identifiable data from other NIOSH
or non-NIOSH data files.
- Make no use of the identity of any person or product or its manufacturer discovered
inadvertently and advise the Director, NIOSH, of any such discovery (1-800-CDC-INFO (1-800-232-4636)).
By using these data, you signify your agreement to comply with the above-stated statutorily
based requirements.
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