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Methods: The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth provided job histories and chronic disease data. Five O*NET job descriptors were used as surrogate measures of physical work demands. Logistic regression measured the association between those demands and arthritis occurrence.

Results: The risk of arthritis was significantly associated with handling and moving objects, kneeling, crouching, and crawling, bending and twisting, working in a cramped or awkward posture, and performing general physical activities.

Conclusion: This study demonstrates the utility of using O*NET job descriptors to estimate the aggregated long-term risks for osteoarthritis and other chronic diseases when no actual exposure data is available.
Am. J. Ind. Med. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Methods: Data were from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 cohort (n = 12,686). Short-term consequences were measured when the injury was reported. "Difference-in-differences" approach was applied to estimate income and wealth disparities between injured and non-injured workers before and after injury. Fixed effects models were used to identify variations over time.

Results: The annual earnings growth was $3,715 (in 2000 dollars) less for workers with DAFW injury and $1,152 less for workers with NDAFW injury compared to non-injured workers during a 10-year follow-up. Lost wages and disability following injury contributed to income loss for injured workers, but the loss was moderated by union membership. After controlling for confounders, income disparities persisted, but family wealth differences did not.

Conclusions: Occupational injuries exacerbate income inequality. Efforts to reduce such disparities should include workplace safety and health enforcement.

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Materials and Methods: Data were from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 cohort (NLSY79; n = 12,686). A range of health outcomes among blue-collar construction workers (n = 1,435) were measured when they turned age 40 (1998–2006) and stratified by these workers' prior work-related injury status between 1988 and 2000. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to measure differences among subgroups.

Results: About 38% of the construction cohort reported injuries resulting in days away from work (DAFW); another 15% were injured but reported no DAFW (NDAFW). At age 40, an average of 10 years after injury, those with DAFW injury had worse self-reported general health and mental health, and more diagnosed conditions and functional limitations than those without injury. This difference was statistically significant after controlling for major demographics.

Discussion: Adverse health effects from occupational injury among construction workers persist longer than previously documented.

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

METHODS: We review the literature on the consequences of workplace injuries for both workers and employers, focusing on data sources, particularly linked administrative data from different public agencies. We also review other approaches to obtaining data to examine workplace injuries, including public-use longitudinal survey data, primary data collection, and linked employee-employer databases. We make suggestions for future research.

RESULTS: Recent advances in the literature on the economic consequences of workplace injuries for workers have been driven to a great extent by the availability of new data sources. Much remains unexplored. We find longitudinal survey databases including the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, and the Health and Retirement Survey, to be very promising though largely untapped sources of data on workplace injuries. We also find that linked employee-employer databases are well suited for the study of consequences for employers.

CONCLUSIONS: We expect that new data sources should lead to rapid advances in our understanding of the economic consequences of workplace injuries for both workers and employers. Copyright 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.