142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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Investigating the Risk of First Occupational Injury by Treated Psychiatric Disorder Episodes of Care

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Cecilia F. Montano, PhD , School of Public Health, Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX
Benjamin C. Amick III, PhD , Department of Health Policy and Management, Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, Florida International University, Miami, FL
Mary S. Baraniuk, PhD , Coordinating Center for Clinical Trials, Department of Biostatistics, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX
Robert E. Roberts, PhD , Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences Department, Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living, University of Texa Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX
Jessica M. Tullar, PhD , Institute for Health Policy, School of Public Heatlh, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX
Background and Objective(s): In the US, more than 4.1 million workers sustain a serious job-related injury/illness each year. Furthermore, literature reviews suggest employees with psychiatric disorders may be at an elevated risk of sustaining a work-related injury. With an estimated 18% of US workers suffering from a psychiatric disorder in a given month, the association between psychiatric disorders and occupational injury risk warrants public health attention. The study objective was to investigate whether treated psychiatric disorder episodes of care predict onset of occupational injury, after adjusting for work and sociodemographic confounders.

Methods: This was a historical cohort study of US workers from a large oilfield services corporation employed sometime between January 1, 2005 and June 30, 2011. Administrative, mental health claims and work-related injury data were integrated to construct an occupational cohort. A cox proportional hazards model was fit to the data to model time to first occupational injury with psychiatric disorder treated episode as the predictor. Adjusted hazard rates and 95% confidence intervals were calculated for occupational injury risk.

Results: The cohort consisted of 18,144 workers. A total of 2,302 employees (13%) sustained an occupational injury over a mean follow-up of 2.7 years. Workers with a disorder had an 84% lower risk of first occupational injury compared to employees without a disorder (HR = 0.16; 95% CI 0.07 to 0.39) after adjustment.

Conclusion: This study provides some preliminary evidence for a reduced risk of first occupational injury among employees with a treated psychiatric disorder in the oil and gas industry.

Learning Areas:

Biostatistics, economics
Epidemiology
Occupational health and safety

Learning Objectives:
Describe the association between treated psychiatric disorders and risk of occupational injury among oil and gas services workers.

Keyword(s): Occupational Health and Safety, Mental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have conducted research on worker mental health and occupational injury risk for the past 4 years during my doctoral program/dissertation, and was the PI on this study.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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