Associations of Individual-Related and Job-Related Risk Factors with Nonfatal Occupational Injury in the Coal Workers of Shanxi Province: A Cross-Sectional Study.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the relationships between the risk factors and the incidence of nonfatal occupational injury of coal mine workers of Shanxi Province.

METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted from July 2013 to December 2013, and 4319 workers were recruited from more than 200,000 coal mine employees who are exposed to continuous potential risk of occupational injuries by using a two-stage stratified cluster sampling method. Trained interviewers having necessary medical knowledge conducted face-to-face interviews with the participants. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and the 95% confidence interval (CI).

RESULTS: A total number of 3618 effective respondents were got from 4319 participants (83.77%) and the mean age of the participants was 41.5 years with the standard deviation of 8.65. Significant crude odds ratios were observed for all factors considered except for marital status, education, work duration, BMI, EPQ-RSC(P) scale and EPQ-RSC(L) scale. Results from multivariable logistic regression model showed significant adjusted odds ratios for risk factors including gender (female vs male 0.275, 0.094-0.800), age (≥55 vs ≤25yr 0.169, 0.032-0.900), work type (light physical labor vs heavy physical labor 0.504, 0.328-0.774), workplace (underground auxiliary vs underground front-line 0.595, 0.385-0.919), length of shiftwork experience (0~5yr vs no shift 2.075, 1.287-3.344 and ≥15yr vs no shift 2.076, 1.230-3.504) and EPQ-RSC(E) score (extraversion vs introversion 0.538, 0.334-0.867).

CONCLUSIONS: Several risk factors of nonfatal occupational injury were identified including male, age, heavy physical labor, underground front-line, length of shiftwork experience and introversion. The coal mining enterprises should pay attention to controlling the hazards associated with frontline physical work. Workers' behaviors, life styles and personality traits should also be considered, so that the enterprises could set achievable targets for workers and lessen the exposed period to the risky underground workstation.