Estimation of the relative risks of musculoskeletal injuries in the Andalusian manufacturing sector

• Estimated musculoskeletal risk by age, sex, contract, nation and establishment size.
• Exposed workers are estimated using a large sample of Social Security data.
• Groups at risk are: temporary, young age, and working for a big establishment.

BackgroundHigher injury rates of workers with specific characteristics can show areas of interest for intervention. Worker characteristics can be a risk factor because there is a differential distribution of exposure or because a particular worker characteristic affects the worker's behavior and the effects of work in the musculoskeletal system.ObjectiveTo estimate the relative risk for the most frequent accident mechanisms and to present the usefulness of the information from the Continuous Sample of Working Lives for a better estimation of the relative risk based on epidemiological analysis of specific types of accident controlling for possible confounders.Materials and methodsThe most frequent accident mechanisms were identified by analyzing the official accident notifications. To estimate the exposed workers, the Continuous Sample of Working Lives dataset is used. The dataset contains employment variables such as occupational levels, sector of activity, contract type and duration of employment. It also includes relevant variables related to demographics such as location, age, sex and nationality.ResultsAdjusted relative risk confirms that female workers, foreign, non-manual and older workers have lower injury rates.ConclusionsThe use of the Continuous Sample of Working Lives is useful in the analysis of the risk factors for particular types of accidents and allows a better estimation of the relative risks of accident.

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