A detailed analysis of work-related injury among youth treated in emergency departments

Am J Ind Med. 1995 Jun;27(6):793-805. doi: 10.1002/ajim.4700270604.

Abstract

Telephone interviews were conducted with 146 14- to 16-year-olds who incurred an occupational injury treated in an emergency department during the period July through September 1992. Thirty-two percent of the injuries occurred as the result of using equipment. Over half the workers reported not having received prior training on how to avoid injury. The injury limited normal activities for at least 1 day for 68% of the youth and for more than a week for 25%, corresponding to an estimated 6,208 (95% CI: 4,277, 8,139) and 2,639 (95% CI: 1,580, 3,699) youths nationwide, respectively. Employment in retail trades, equipment use, lack of training, and burn injuries were associated with increased limitation of normal activities. Nineteen percent of the youths appear to have been injured in jobs declared to be hazardous, or typically prohibited for their age (14- and 15-year-olds) under federal child labor laws. The prohibited job directly contributed to the injury in 64% of these cases.

MeSH terms

  • Accidents, Occupational / statistics & numerical data*
  • Adolescent
  • Burns / epidemiology
  • Burns / etiology
  • Emergency Medical Services / statistics & numerical data*
  • Employment / legislation & jurisprudence
  • Equipment Safety / standards
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Humans
  • Incidence
  • Male
  • Occupational Diseases / epidemiology*
  • Occupational Diseases / etiology
  • Occupational Health
  • Occupations
  • Risk Factors
  • Seasons
  • United States / epidemiology
  • Workplace
  • Wounds and Injuries / epidemiology*
  • Wounds and Injuries / etiology