Evaluation of New Jersey's Hospital Discharge Database for Occupational InjurySurveillance

摘要

The utility of New Jersey's hospital discharge database for surveillance of fiveselected injuries that occurred at work during 1985 or 1986 was evaluated. The five injuries included: finger amputation, thumb amputation, crush injury of the lower limb, chemical poisoning due to heavy metals, and eye burns. Hospital records for 289 patients with one of the five injuries were compared with data collected by telephone interview of the patients. About 60% of the selected injuries were work related by self report. The authors conclude that the New Jersey hospital discharge database can be used for surveillance of occupational injuries. Finger amputations and crush injuries of the lower limb may be chosen as specific injury types to be targeted for occupational injury surveillance. Available external cause of injury data were too limited on the databases to be useful for targeting specific prevention activities. The database can be used to describe the demographic characteristics of hospitalized individuals due to occupational injuries. For finger amputations, rates of hospitalizations were higher for males than females, and for Hispanics and blacks as compared to whites. Interview of injured persons were required to ascertain occupation and industry information and injury circumstances for further epidemiologic study.