Occupational health disparities in the U.S. hotel industry

Background: Hotel employees have relatively higher rates of occupational injury and sustain more severe injuries than most other service workers. Methods: OSHA log incidents from a sample of 50 unionized hotels drawn from 5 hotel companies for a three-year period were analyzed to calculate injury rates by job, company, race/ethnicity and sex, with a focus on room cleaning work. Injuries were classified as musculoskeletal, acute trauma, or other injuries. Denominators were constructed from the hotel workforce rosters. Multivariate Poisson regression models were used to evaluate the independent effects of demographic factors, job title, and company. Results: A total of 2,865 injuries were identified from OSHA logs for those employed during one or more years during 2003-2005, totaling 55,183 person-years of observation. The overall injury rate was 5.2 injuries per 100 worker-years. The rate was highest for Hispanics (6.4/100), housekeepers (7.9/100), female Hispanic housekeepers (10.6/100) and about double in 3 companies versus 2 others (among the four larger companies, the highest rate was 6.9/100). Acute trauma rates were highest in kitchen workers (4.0/100) and housekeepers (3.9/100); housekeepers also had the highest rate of musculoskeletal disorders (3.2/100). Age, female sex, Hispanic ethnicity, job tenure, job title, and company were all independently associated with injury risk. Conclusion: Sex and ethnicity-based disparities in injury rates were only partially explained by the type of job held and the company in which the work was performed.