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Abstract
Background Older workers experience higher rates of fatal occupational injury than younger workers worldwide. In North Carolina, the population of older workers more than doubled between 2000 and 2017. In 2008, the Great Recession changed occupational patterns among all age groups. We examined annual rates and distribution of fatal occupational injuries experienced by older workers, comparing the pre-recession period (2000–2007) to the post-recession period (2009–2017).
Methods Detailed information on all fatal occupational injuries during the period between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2017 were abstracted from the records of the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the office of vital records. The decennial Census and American Community Survey were used to estimate the population at risk and derive annual rates of fatal occupational injury.
Results During the study period, 537 occupational fatalities occurred among workers 55+ years of age. The rate of fatal occupational injury among older workers declined 2.8% per year, with a 7.7% yearly decline in the pre-recession period compared with a 1.4% increase per year in the post-recession period. Workers 65+ years of age experienced rate increases in both periods. The highest rates of unintentional fatal occupational injury (injuries that were not purposefully inflicted) were observed in forestry, fishing hunting and trapping, and wood building manufacturing. Intentional fatal occupational injury rates (homicide, suicide) were highest in transportation, gas/service stations and grocery/food stores.
Conclusions Older workers have persistently high rates of fatal occupational injury in North Carolina before and after the Great Recession.
- accidents
- public health surveillance
- epidemiology
- public health
- environmental exposure
Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used with permission for this study. Data are available from the authors with the permission of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the Institutional Review Board of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the State Center for Health Statistics.
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Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used with permission for this study. Data are available from the authors with the permission of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the Institutional Review Board of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the State Center for Health Statistics.
Footnotes
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Contributors MMR is the guarantor of this work, accepts full responsibility for the work and the conduct of the study, had access to the data, and controlled the decision to publish. MMR conceived the study aim, assisted with data acquisition, built the study data set, led the analysis, and wrote the manuscript. MMR is accountable for the integrity and accuracy of the work. DBR provided intellectual andmethodological guidance on developing the study aim and analysis, was the leader of the data acquisition process, and assisted with intellectual and editorial development of the manuscript. YG, SWM, WN and AK provided methodological and editorial guidance during the study development, manuscript writing and editing process. MN lead the data acquisition team, managed data quality efforts, and provided methodological and editorial guidance during the study development, manuscript writing and editing process.
Funding This study was partially supported by a grant award (R01 OH011256‐01A1) from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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