Abstract
Objective
Occupational traumatic brain injuries disrupt the lives of workers and carry major economic repercussions. To date, there has been limited information on brain injuries that occur at work across injury severity levels in Canada. The aim of this study was to provide an overview of occupational traumatic brain injuries in Ontario, with a focus on the sex of the workers.
Methods
For this cross-sectional study, data from the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board were used. A retrospective chart review was conducted of over 1,500 claim files from the year 2004 with the diagnostic codes of concussion and intracranial injury. Severity was assessed according to data on days off work.
Results
The average age of those injured was 37.8 years. The breakdown by sex shows that 57.8% of claims for occupational traumatic brain injury involved males. The most common mechanism of injury was being “struck by or against”, followed by “falls”. Most of the occupational traumatic brain injuries were from the manufacturing, and government and related services sectors. The highest rate, however, was shown for transportation and storage (81.5/100,000), followed by government and related services (56.6/100,000) and primary industries (47/100,000).
Conclusions
An examination of occupational traumatic brain injuries across a range of severities reveals a profile that is different from that associated with more severely injured workers: there were many more women in particular industries who were injured and more injuries involving being struck by an object. This paper provides data on key industries, mechanisms and contributing factors involved in work-related traumatic brain injury that result in claims to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.
Key words: Traumatic brain injury, epidemiology, workplace
Résumé
Objectif
Les traumatismes cérébraux au travail désorganisent la vie des travailleurs et ont d’importantes répercussions économiques. Jusqu’à maintenant, on a peu d’information sur les niveaux de gravité des blessures cérébrales qui se produisent au travail au Canada. L’objectif de cette étude était d’en donner un aperçu pour l’Ontario, selon le genre des travailleurs accidentés.
Méthode
Pour cette étude transversale, nous avons utilisé les données de la Commission de la sécurité professionnelle et de l’assurance contre les accidents du travail de l’Ontario. Un examen rétrospectif de dossier a porté sur plus de 1 500 dossiers de demandes d’indemnisation en 2004 comportant les codes diagnostiques de commotion et de blessure intracrânienne. Nous leur avons attribué un niveau de gravité selon le nombre de jours d’absence du travail.
Résultats
L’âge moyen des personnes atteintes était de 37,8 ans. Réparties selon le sexe, 57,8 % des demandes d’indemnisation pour traumatisme cérébral avaient été déposées par des hommes. Les mécanismes de blessure les plus courants étaient d’avoir été «frappé par ou contre» quelque chose et d’avoir fait une «chute». La plupart des traumatismes cérébraux au travail provenaient des secteurs manufacturier, gouvernemental et des services connexes. Le taux le plus élevé était par contre observé dans le secteur des transports et de l’entreposage (81,5/100 000), suivi des services gouvernementaux et services connexes (56,6/100 000) et des industries primaires (47/100 000).
Conclusion
Un examen des traumatismes cérébraux au travail selon l’étendue de la gravité dessine un portrait différent de celui associé uniquement aux travailleurs grièvement blessés: dans certaines industries, beaucoup plus de femmes que d’hommes avaient subi des lésions, et davantage de travailleurs accidentés avaient été frappés par un objet. Nous présentons nos données par grands secteurs d’activité, selon les mécanismes de blessure et selon les facteurs ayant contribué à des traumatismes cérébraux au travail entraînant des demandes d’indemnisation auprès de la Commission.
Mots clés: traumatismes cérébraux, épidémiologie, milieu de travail
Footnotes
Acknowledgements: This study was funded by the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation. We acknowledge support from the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute Foundation and a grant from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. We wish to thank the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board for their collaboration in this study. We are grateful for the support of Michelle Mohan and Junlang Yin.
Conflict of Interest: None to declare.
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