Objectives: To compare the risk of occupational injury (OI) by nationality in 2003 and 2004.
Methods: OI were grouped into those occurring in Spaniards and those occurring in foreigners. For 2003, the first year in which this variable was available and there were a significant number of OI without a nationality code, classification of OI was as follows: (A) consideration of OI without a nationality code as occurring in foreigners, and (B) exclusion of OI without a nationality code from the analysis.
Results: According to definition A, the relative risk (Spaniards as reference) of non-fatal OI was 4.39 (95%CI, 4.38-4.42) and 5.0 (4.5-5.6) for fatal OI. According to definition B, the relative risk of non-fatal OI was 0.72 (95%CI, 0.71-0.73) and 1.2 (95%CI, 0.9-1.5) for fatal OI. In 2004, when there were no codification problems, the relative risk was 0.95 (95%CI, 0.94-0.96) for non-fatal OI and 1.2 (95%CI, 0.9-1.4) for fatal OI.
Conclusions: These highly contradictory results indicate the need to continue to monitor this occupational health problem, as well as to seek adequate management of data quality.