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What Predicts Workplace Injury?
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The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between lifestyle variables including body mass index and filing a workers’ compensation claim due to firefighter injury.
Methods: A cross-sectional evaluation of firefighter injury related to workers’’ compensation claims occurring 5 years after the original Promoting Healthy Lifestyles: Alternative Models’ Effects study intervention. Results: A logistic regression analysis for variables predicting filing a workers’ compensation claim due to an injury was performed with a total of 433 participants. The odds of filing a compensation claim were almost 3 times higher for firefighters with a body mass index of more than 30 kg/m2 than firefighters with a normal body mass index (odds ratio= 2.89; p < 0.05). Conclusions: This study addresses a high-priority area of reducing firefighter injuries and workers’ compensation claims. Maintaining a healthy body weight is important to reduce injury and workers’ compensation claims among firefighters. Reference: Kuehl, K. S., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., Elliot, D. L., Moe, E. L., DeFrancesco, C. A., MacKinnon, D. P., ... & Kuehl, H. E. (2012). Body mass index is a predictor of fire fighter injury and worker compensation claims. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 54(5), 579. Link |