Occupational socioeconomic status and occupational injuries in Canada

Introduction
In industrialized countries, current demographic trends associated with the aging of the workforce pose several challenges in terms of occupational injury prevention. Of particular interest, is the notion that the distribution of risks over the work-life course may shift across the occupational structure to reflect major economical trends. The occupational socioeconomic status may relevantly capture such critical trends. The aims of the study consist in assessing two distinct measurements of the occupational socioeconomic status in the prediction of occupational injuries in the Canadian workforce.

Methods
Data consist of working participants of the National Population Health Survey (NPHS) aged 18-65 years old and prospectively followed throughout NPHS cycles (cycle 1= 1994-1995 to cycle 8=2008-2009). The NPHS is a biannual multistage survey representative of the Canadian population (N= 17 276, 1994). Response rates throughout NPHS cycles range from (77.0%-93.6%). Occupational injuries were measured with an affirmative answer to two questions (Not counting repetitive strain injuries, in the past 12 months, were you injured? Was this a work-related injury?). Occupational socioeconomic status was assessed using two distinct measures: 1) the Pineo socioeconomic classification of occupation scale (Pineo, Porter, McRoberts, 1977); and 2) the Scale of Occupational Prestige in Canada (Goyder, 2007). Covariates included work stressors, non-work factors, and individual attributes. Multilevel longitudinal regressions were performed on the NPHS, with separate analyses for each occupational socioeconomic status measure.

Results
Preliminary results have shown that risk for incident occupational injuries increases over time (OR range 2.69-3.07). Gender-stratified analyses further showed that occupational socioeconomic status is an important determinant of occupational injuries.

Discussion
Results from this study will relevantly help better assess the relative role of occupational socioeconomic status in the production of disparities in accidental occupational injuries and their associated risks over a 14-year follow-up of the NPHS cohort.