Both mental and physical fatigue have been considered potential risk factors in studies of fatal and non-fatal injuries in the workplace. To evaluate associations between traumatic injuries to the hand and potentially modifiable risk factors, we enrolled over 1,100 patients in a case-crossover study of occupational hand injuries. Patients were recruited over 2 years from 24 occupational health clinics in New England. These factors include worker-related factors (i.e., fatigue), work practices, work equipment, and worker characteristics. Various temporal determinants (proxies for fatigue) were utilized to evaluate the association between fatigue and traumatic hand injuries. These included 1) the time of day of the injury, 2) the time since start of shift, 3) working overtime, and 4) hours of sleep before the injury relative to usual number of hours of sleep.
The majority of hand injuries occurred in the morning between 09:00-12:00 (43.0%), peaking from 10:00-11:00 (15.0%). The median time into the work shift was 3.5 hours. The average hours worked per month was 188, including 22.4 hours of overtime, representing 12% of the total person-time at risk. In contrast, only 4.2% of injuries occurred while working overtime. The amount of sleep on the night prior to the injury, compared to usual, did not appear to be a risk factor for hand injuries. Among all patients, the mean and median difference in sleep time (hours) was -0.1 and 0, respectively.
Further analysis is needed to determine if these findings are modified by workplace and individual factors (i.e., job pace, shift, safety training, age, gender).
Learning Objectives: 1)Identify the temporal determinants of occupational acute hand injury risk. 2)Understand and describe the utility of the case-crossover design in occupational injury research
Keywords: Injury Risk, Occupational Injury and Death
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.