@article {Richey154, author = {Morgan Miller Richey and Yvonne Golightly and Stephen William Marshall and Wendy Novicoff and Alexander Keil and Maryalice Nocera and David B Richardson}, title = {Trends in fatal occupational injury rates among older workers before and after the Great Recession of 2008}, volume = {80}, number = {3}, pages = {154--159}, year = {2023}, doi = {10.1136/oemed-2022-108587}, publisher = {BMJ Publishing Group Ltd}, 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{\textendash}2007) to the post-recession period (2009{\textendash}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.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.}, issn = {1351-0711}, URL = {https://oem.bmj.com/content/80/3/154}, eprint = {https://oem.bmj.com/content/80/3/154.full.pdf}, journal = {Occupational and Environmental Medicine} }