Improving agricultural injury surveillance: comparing injuries captured by Iowa's workers' compensation and trauma registry data.

backgroundWithout a comprehensive national surveillance system in the USA, the agricultural sector faces numerous obstacles to accurate and complete injury reporting and surveillance. Secondary sources are increasingly being used to conduct surveillance but have not been thoroughly evaluated for their overlap and ability to capture various types of agricultural injuries.

methodsUsing two state-level systems which likely capture severe injuries, the (i) Iowa Trauma Registry (ITR) and (ii) Workers' Compensation (WC) records, we compared worker and injury characteristics found in these two data sources over a ten-year period (2005-2014) and developed a predictive model to determine which injuries are most likely captured in one data source vs the other.

resultsA total of 2398 unique injuries from ITR and 3419 unique injuries from WC were found. There was very little overlap between the two sources. In general, injuries among older agricultural workers (65+) had a higher probability of capture by the ITR, while injuries among younger agricultural workers were more likely captured by WC. Young agricultural workers injured in motor vehicle traffic incidents were more likely captured by WC, but after age 25, these injuries were more likely captured by the ITR. In contrast, more machinery injuries were captured by the ITR than WC across age.

conclusionsNeither of these secondary systems fully captured all injuries. Hence, comprehensive surveillance would require multiple data sources. However, future studies involving targeted research questions could select one data source, especially when surveillance resources are limited.