Citation

Burridge JD, Marshall SW, Laing RM. Aust. N. Zeal. J. Public Health 1997; 21(5): 451-454.

Affiliation

Clothing and Textiles Centre, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Public Health Association of Australia, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9343887

Abstract

The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiology of work-related hand and lower-arm injuries in New Zealand. Nonfatal hand and lower-arm injuries were identified from New Zealand's national database of hospital admissions for the period 1979 to 1988. Thirty-seven per cent (9714) of all such injuries (26,228) were work-related. Piercing and cutting instruments (38.5 per cent) and machinery (37.2 per cent) were the two most common agents of work-related hand and lower-arm injury. Specific occupations in which the number of cases was high included meat workers (n = 1020, 3.3 per 1000 employees), carpenters (n = 548, 2.2 per 1000), machine operators (n = 450, 11.9 per 1000) and sawmill workers (n = 498, 7.7 per 1000). The injury rate for meat workers, carpenter-joiners, machine operators and sawmillers increased significantly over the 10-year study period.

Language: en