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Abstract
The objective was to study the epidemiology of fatal occupational injuries in Sweden as a basis for injury mitigation activities.
Data of injury incidents from the years 2010–4 registered at the Swedish Working Authority and AFA Insurance was used along with national registers for hospitalised persons combined with national registers of individual data on occupational and industry. We also compared the epidemiology of serious with fatal incidents.
On average 50 fatalities happened per year, i.e. around 1 per 1 00 000 persons in the work force. Around two of three fatalities involved a vehicle related incident or a fall from height. There was a weak association between fatal and serious incidents. Codes about occupational factors in hospital diagnoses were very often missing (60%–70%) and linkages between hospital registers, death registers and other medical data registers had limited use to find strategies for prevention.
Conclusions Small numbers hampers the possibility to follow trends in fatal occupational incidents. The epidemiology of serious incidents is a rather poor ground for prioritising measures for preventing fatal injuries. Traditional variables in registers of fatal incidents as sex, age, industry and job has limited information for prioritising preventive measures. There are already a lot preventive measures undertaken. However, much more could be done e.g. with focus on vehicle related injuries and falls from high level. We think that an additional prioritising factor in the injury reducing work would be to address how well we know, or can find, suitable preventive strategies should be included.