@article{ref1,
title="Do drug-free workplace programs prevent occupational injuries? Evidence from Washington State",
journal="Health services research",
year="2004",
author="Wickizer, Thomas M. and Kopjar, B. and Franklin, G. and Joesch, Jutta",
volume="39",
number="1",
pages="91-110",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of a publicly sponsored drug-free workplace program on reducing the risk of occupational injuries. DATA SOURCES: Workers' compensation claims data from the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries covering the period 1994 through 2000 and work-hours data reported by employers served as the data sources for the analysis. STUDY DESIGN: We used a pre-post design with a nonequivalent comparison group to assess the impact of the intervention on injury risk, measured in terms of differences in injury incidence rates. Two hundred and sixty-one companies that enrolled in the drug-free workplace program during the latter half of 1996 were compared with approximately 20,500 nonintervention companies. We tested autoregressive, integrated moving-average (ARIMA) models to assess the robustness of our findings. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The drug-free workplace intervention was associated (p < .05) with a statistically significant decrease in injury rates for three industry groups: construction, manufacturing, and services. It was associated (p < .05) with a reduction in the incidence rate of more serious injuries involving four or more days of lost work time for two industry groups: construction and services. The ARIMA analysis supported CONCLUSIONS: The drug-free workplace program we studied was associated with a selective, industry-specific preventive effect. The strongest evidence of an intervention effect was for the construction industry. Estimated net cost savings for this industry were positive though small in magnitude.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0017-9124",
doi="10.1111/j.1475-6773.2004.00217.x",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6773.2004.00217.x"
}