A retrospective cohort study investigating the association between treated psychiatric disorders andoccupational injury among a US occupational cohort
Abstract
An emerging literature indicates the risk of occupational injury are greater for workers with psychiatric problems. However, the evidence is mixed and there are few high-quality studies. The study aims were to describe the annual 12-month prevalence and incidence of treated psychiatric disorder episodes of care for the years 2005 to 2010 and their distribution by sociodemographic and work characteristics and to investigate whether treated psychiatric disorder episodes of care predict onset of occupational injury, after adjusting for work and sociodemographicconfounders. This study integrated historical employer administrative, mental health claims and occupational injury data to construct an occupational cohort. The sample was a cohort of employees who worked for a large energy services company in the US sometime during the years 2005to 2011 and received US mental health benefits. Differences in disorder prevalence and incidence rates by sociodemographic and work characteristics were assessed using chi-square tests of significant associations, and a significance level of P ≤ .05. A cox proportional hazards model was fit to the data to model time to first occupational injury with psychiatric disorder episode as the independent variable. The 12-month prevalence ranged from 3.6% and 4.3% during the study period, the 10-month incidence was 3.5% in 2005, and the 12-month incidence during the years 2006–2010 ranged between 3.2% and 3.8%. Incidence and prevalence statistically significantly varied by all sociodemographic and work characteristics. Workers with a disorder had an 84% lower risk of first occupational injury compared to employees without a disorder (HR = 0.16; 95% CI 0.07 to 0.39) after adjustment. Tests of the proportional hazards assumption revealed HRs were not constant over time for the psychiatric disorder predictor and other variables. This study provides some evidence for a reduced risk of occupational injury among employees with a treated psychiatric disorder in the oil and gas industry. Study findings should be interpreted cautiously due to non-proportionality in the baseline hazards for the psychiatric disorder predictor.
Subject Area
Mental health|Occupational health|Public health
Recommended Citation
Montano, Cecilia Fidelina, "A retrospective cohort study investigating the association between treated psychiatric disorders andoccupational injury among a US occupational cohort" (2013). Texas Medical Center Dissertations (via ProQuest). AAI3611642.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/dissertations/AAI3611642