The dairy industry has a high rate of injury claims, leading to adverse impacts on compensation insurance costs. The project will build on existing PNASH collaborations with the WA Department of Labor and Industries SHARP program, to obtain access to worker’s compensation claims data as the primary analysis source. This project will lay the foundations for an ongoing effort to conduct surveillance of injuries and compensation claims in the WA dairy industry.
This surveillance system will allow PNASH and others to identify research and education needs to reduce injury and illnesses in the industry and to measure the effectiveness of implemented interventions over time. In the long-term the model developed for the dairy industry can then be used for conducting research for other sectors in agriculture, fishing, and forestry.
The data being used in this project was obtained from the Department of Labor and Industry (LNI) with the cooperation from the Safety and Health Assessment and Research for Prevention Program (SHARP). The project researchers identified and created data definitions for key field codes present in the LNI SHARP workers' compensation database and identified the linkages between this data and the Washington State Employment Security Database and the Comprehensive Hospital Abstract Reporting System (CHARS) database. Additionally, the researchers created a database framework at the University of Washington that will allow for the LNI data to be stored and accessed from department servers. Lastly, we obtained data injury claims in the dairy industry from 2010-2014 and compared the rates of injuries across different injury types between dairy, agriculture, and all Washington State employees covered by the state fund.
Outcomes
The dairy worker population experienced a higher-than-expected claim rate in the 5-year study period as well as seemingly more severe injuries, particularly those related to musculoskeletal disorders and trips and falls. Dairy workers experienced 90% more reported injuries than other workers. In addition, the types of injuries dairy workers experience result in more lost days of work.
Projects
Partners and Advisories
- Washington Department of Labor and Industries, SHARP Program
Principal Investigator: Michael Yost, PhD, MS, Chair and Professor, UW Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Director, Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center
PNASH Pilot Program 2015-2016