Population-based data from the U.S. and Canada show elevated work injury rates among adolescents (15 to 19 year olds) and young adults (20 to 24 year olds) as compared to their adult counterparts. The intermediate goals of this project are to provide more precise estimates for risk factors and identify consequences of work-related injuries and illnesses among adolescents and young adults. The long-term goals of the proposed research are to reduce the number of injuries occurring in the workplace by aiding in the development of effective countermeasures and to aid in the development of fair and equitable workers' compensation. The objectives fall directly into three of the research priorities recognized by the National Occupational Research Agenda, special populations (i.e., young workers), traumatic injuries, and the social and economic consequences of work injury. Using longitudinal data, the proposed research on young workers has two specific aims: a) to better estimate the relative contribution of sociodemographic factors, working conditions, and work experience on work injuries among young people; b) to evaluate the initial labor market trajectories of injured young workers. We conducted a review of longitudinal studies of youth in the U.S. and found no dataset that provided sufficient information on both work activity and work-related injuries. Therefore, the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID), an ongoing, longitudinal survey of representative samples of Canadians, constitutes a unique opportunity to examine the possible antecedents and consequences of work injuries among young people. The three SLID panels available provide up to six years of data in a subsample of approximately 14,958 respondents who were working while aged 16 to 24 during their follow-up period. For the first study aim regarding possible antecedents, our survival analyses will examine multiple risk factors, some of which vary over time. The availability of longitudinal data affords us the opportunity to begin to answer the question, under what working conditions, for whom, and at what point in the job tenure is one's risk for injury the greatest? For the second aim regarding labor market outcomes, we will compare injured workers' income during the 12 months after returning to work to their matched uninjured counterparts in the SLID. No study to date has examined the impact of work injuries on earnings losses among young workers, thereby addressing a notable gap in this research area.
| Breslin, F Curtis; Tompa, Emile; Zhao, Ryan et al. (2008) The relationship between job tenure and work disability absence among adults: a prospective study. Accid Anal Prev 40:368-75 |
