MDGuidelines authored a new peer-review article published in the British Medical Journal – Occupational and Environmental Medicine. This is the first research documenting that mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI), like concussions, caused by workplace violence are more common in the US than Canada or Australia. Workers with a mTBI claim caused by workplace violence tended to be younger, have higher income, and be in the education, public administration, or healthcare industries. These results can help employers create more targeted initiative to better protect employees and support return to work programs.
Read the full article here: https://oem.bmj.com/content/early/2024/07/09/oemed-2024-109437
Publication date: July 16, 2024
ABSTRACT
Objectives Approximately 81% of traumatic brain injury cases are considered to be mild (mTBI), but few studies have reviewed mTBI caused by workplace violence (WPV). This study aimed to (1) determine the incidence of mTBI secondary to WPV in a statewide workers’ compensation system using International Classification of Disease codes and (2) analyse and compare factors associated with return- to- work outcomes between WPV mTBI cases versus other mechanisms.
Methods Using a retrospective cohort of claims data from the California Workers’ Compensation Information System during 2015–2019, cases with a return- to- work date were classified as WPV if the injury description contained keywords such as assault, gunpoint, harassed, intimidated, punch, threat, robbery, violent or verbal abuse.
Results Of the 14 089 mTBI claims analysed in this study, 11.2% were caused by WPV. When comparing WPV to non- WPV claims, the variables with statistically significant (p≤0.001) differences were age, income, industry and job class. There were no significant differences between groups for leave duration. In a linear mixed model, the variable of interest (WPV) was not associated with recovery duration after adjusting for other factors.
Conclusion To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine WPV mTBI claims in the USA. The findings suggest that the public administration, education and healthcare and social services industries are at higher risk for WPV mTBI. WPV and job class were the only modifiable factors in the model and therefore should be the focus of additional research.
PDF version available here: oemed-2024-mTBI_WPV
