Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #121838

Keshia M. Pollack, MPH¹, Gary S. Sorock, PhD, MS², Martin D. Slade, MPH³, Linda Cantley, PT, MS, OCS³, Kanta Sircar, PhD, MPH³, Oyebode Taiwo, MD, MPH³, and Mark Cullen, MD⁴. (1) HPM/Injury Control, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 624 N. Broadway, RM 539, Baltimore, MD 21205, 410-955-2226, kpollack@jhsph.edu, (2) Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Injury Research and Policy, 624 N. Broadway, Room 545, Baltimore, MD 21205, (3) Yale Occupational and Environmental Medicine Program, Yale University, 135 College St, Room 366, New Haven, CT 06510-2283, (4) Occupational Medicine, Yale University, 135 College Street, New Haven, CT 06510

Research on the health impact of body mass index (BMI, wt(kg)/ht(m*m)) has mostly focused on chronic disease and disability-related outcomes. The impact of BMI on traumatic occupational injuries has only been addressed sporadically in the literature. Medical records were abstracted for height and weight from annual physicals during 2002, and categorized for 7,690 workers, between 18 and 65 years of age, from eight manufacturing plants. Traumatic injuries that occurred between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2004 were obtained from a company injury surveillance system. Cox proportional hazards regression with time varying covariates was used to model time to first injury by BMI category. Based on BMI in 2002, the majority of the sample was considered either overweight (42%) or obese (38%). During the three years of follow-up, 39% of all first injuries occurred to workers in the highest BMI group (BMI greater than or equal to 40, 4% of the sample) while only 27% occurred to workers in the ideal BMI category (BMI 18.5-24.9, 16% of the sample). The risk of injury was 64% greater in the highest obesity group than in the ideal BMI group after adjusting for sex, age, education, smoking, job demand, plant, time since hire, and time in job (Hazard Ratio 1.64, 95% CI: 1.15 to 2.55). Injuries to the leg or knee were especially prevalent among this very obese group. Injury reduction programs should focus on controlling hazardous energy exposures and consider adding weight reduction and maintenance programs as potentially effective injury countermeasures.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Understanding the impact that body mass index has on injuries at work
• Describe potential mechanisms through which body mass index is associated with an increased risk of occupational injury.
• Articulate the importance of adding weight management programs as part of workplace injury prevention programs.

Keywords: Obesity, Occupational Injury and Death

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.