What Industrial Categories Are Workers at Excess Risk of Filing a COVID-19 Workers' Compensation Claim? a Study Conducted in 11 Midwestern US States
Bernacki, E.J.; Hunt, D.L.; Yuspeh, L.; Lavin, R.A.; Kalia, N.; Leung, N.; Tsourmas, N.F.; Williams, L.; Tao, X.G.
Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 63(5): 374-380
2021
ISSN/ISBN: 1536-5948 PMID: 33395171 Document Number: 312820
Determine the industries with the highest proportion of accepted COVID-19 related workers' compensation (WC) claims. Study included 21,336 WC claims (1898 COVID-19 and 19,438 other claims) that were filed between January 1, 2020 and August 31, 2020 from 11 states in the Midwest United States. The overwhelming proportion of all COVID-19 related WC claims submitted and accepted were from healthcare workers (83.77%). Healthcare was the only industrial classification that was at significantly higher COVID-19 WC claim submission risk (odds ratio [OR]: 4.00; 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 2.77 to 5.79) controlling for type of employment, sex, age, and presumption of COVID-19 work-relatedness. Within healthcare employment, WC claims submitted by workers in medical laboratories had the highest risk (crude rate ratio of 8.78). Healthcare employment is associated with an increased risk of developing COVID-19 infections and submitting a workers' compensation claim.