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Disabled Employees Have 36 Percent Higher Risk Of Injury In Workplace CHICAGO, IL -- December 23, 1997 -- Workers who are hearing impaired, blind or have other disabilities such as arthritis are more likely to be injured on the job than workers without disabilities, according to an article in the December 24/31 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Craig Zwerling, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, and colleagues studied the 459,827 participants in the National Health Interview Survey from 1985-1994 who listed working as their primary activity who were not farmers, and who were between the ages of 18 and 65. "Using a large, national sample of workers in the United States -- even after adjusting for occupation, self-employment and age -- we found that work disability was associated with a 36 percent increased risk of occupational injury,” the authors write. "Sensory impairments stood out consistently as associated with occupational injury. "Among the orthopedic impairments, upper extremity impairments were associated with a 46 percent increased risk of occupational injury, but there was no statistically-significantly increased risk associated with back or lower extremity impairments." When compared with workers without disabilities, the researchers found: --Blindness more than tripled the risk for injury. --Deafness more than doubled the risk for injury. --Hearing impairment increased the risk for injury by 55 percent. --Arthritis increased the risk for injury by 34 percent. In the 1980s, about 10 percent of the population between 18 and 64 years of age had some work limitation. The authors predict that over the next decade, the number of American workers with disabilities will likely increase because of the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act and because of the aging baby boom generation. Passed in 1991, the Americans With Disabilities Act mandates that employers with more than 15 employees make any reasonable accommodations to allow qualified workers with disabilities to participate in the workforce. "These data do not indicate that workers with disabilities should be excluded from the workforce," the authors write. "The Americans With Disabilities Act requires that decisions to deny employment because the worker is a direct threat to his own health and safety be based on an individualised assessment of the of the individual's present ability to perform the job, not merely because of a slightly elevated risk. "Assuming an odds ratio for occupational injury of 1.36 among workers with disabilities and assuming a 10 percent prevalence of disability in the workforce, only 3.5 percent of occupational injuries in the workforce would be explained by prior disability." In 1992, the mean age of the American workforce was 37 years. In 2005, the mean age is expected to be 41 years. Since older workers have higher rates of disability, it can be expected that the older workforce will have higher rates of disability as well, according to information cited in the article. "Physicians treating workers with disabilities should communicate these potential risks and should help patients and their employers to develop workplace accommodations to minimise risks to workers." E-mail this page to a friend or colleague! To print, use this version