Health burden from injuries among working populations

Abstract

Injury causes an enormous amount of physical, financial and emotional hardship for individual working populations, their families and workplaces. It has been identified as the top of occupational health problems in Thailand. This descriptive study aimed to investigate (1) the situation of data entry regarding to occupational injuries (2) the unintentional injury rates among working populations with breakdown by gender, age and type of occupation, and (3) the health burden from such injuries. Data were collected from thirty-one participated hospitals. Such data were manipulated and analyzed using frequency, percentage and Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) with spread sheets. A number of injured patients were adjusted with the proportion of those injured patients who did not access the services at general/regional hospitals. The results showed that 38.71% of the selected hospitals did not notify ICD-10 coding for the occupational injuries into the hospital database. The injury rates were 102.43 per 1,000 working populations and the injured fatality rates were 88.60 per 100,000 working populations. In addition, such rates were higher in males than females with age 35-44 years old. The burdens of unintentional injuries among 31 hospitals (27 provinces) in males were 62.29 DALYs per 1,000 working populations and 23.23 DALYs per 1,000 working populations in females. Of DALYs, Year of Life Loss (YLL) was higher than Year Lost due to Disability (YLD). This study recommended that unintentional injuries prevention from occupational exposures should address on industrial work and agriculture work. The results of this study are useful to support “safety Thailand” project which is aimed to integrate and promote collaboration on safety and occupational health among concerned ministries. According to the under-report of occupational injuries found in this study, it is needed to train the staff of the hospital to record ICD-10 code for occupational injuries in the database. Such data are crucial for the planning and guiding of preventive strategies to develop surveillance and notification systems of occupational health problems.