Using narrative text and coded data to develop hazard scenarios for occupational injury interventions

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether narrative text in safety reports contains sufficient information regarding contributing factors and precipitating mechanisms to prioritize occupational back injury prevention strategies. Design, setting, subjects, and main outcome measures: Nine essential data elements were identified in narratives and coded sections of safety reports for each of 94 cases of back injuries to United States Army truck drivers reported to the United States Army Safety Center between 1987 and 1997. The essential elements of each case were used to reconstruct standardized event sequences. A taxonomy of the event sequences was then developed to identify common hazard scenarios and opportunities for primary interventions. Results: Coded data typically only identified five data elements (broad activity, task, event/exposure, nature of injury, and outcomes) while narratives provided additional elements (contributing factor, precipitating mechanism, primary source) essential for developing our taxonomy. Three hazard scenarios were associated with back injuries among Army truck drivers accounting for 83% of cases: struck by/ against events during motor vehicle crashes; falls resulting from slips/trips or loss of balance; and overexertion from lifting activities. Conclusions: Coded data from safety investigations lacked sufficient information to thoroughly characterize the injury event. However, the combination of existing narrative text (similar to that collected by many injury surveillance systems) and coded data enabled us to develop a more complete taxonomy of injury event characteristics and identify common hazard scenarios. This study demonstrates that narrative text can provide the additional information on contributing factors and precipitating mechanisms needed to target prevention strategies.

Death Cases Related to Tractor Overturns

“…[24][25][26] Narrative text coding based on the Haddon matrix and the hazard scenario frameworks has been shown to provide a comprehensive analysis of the factors contributing to injuries in specific worker populations [27][28][29][30] suggested that the use of narrative analysis of reports based on Haddon's matrix provided more comprehensive information on the human, organizational, and environmental factors con-tributing to worker injuries. FACE fatality investigation reports consist of an examination of the geographic location of the fatality, as well as interviews of witnesses, family, employers, coroners, and others.…”

Circumstances of fatal lockout/tagout‐related injuries in manufacturing

“…As a starting point, the nine ''key data elements'' used by Lincoln et al [2004] in their template for reconstructing injury events were adapted to fit the needs of this study. Other important circumstances of the injuries were captured with additional variables.…”

Worker Injuries Involving the Interaction of Cattle, Cattle Handlers, and Farm Structures or Equipment

“…Our approach was similar to and patterned on an earlier report of narratives used to characterize injuries of U.S. Army truck drivers (Lincoln et al, 2004). Two investigators independently assigned each of the 221 reports to the ten injury scenarios (99.10% initial agreement; all discrepancies were easily resolved).…”