Prioritizing industries for occupational injury and illness prevention and research, Washington state workers' compensation claims,1999-2003

Objective: The objective of this study was to identify high-risk industry groups for effective allocation of occupational safety and health prevention and research resources. Methods: We used all compensable Washington state workers' compensation claims to rank North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industry groups by a "prevention index" (PI). The PI is the average of the rank orders of each industry group's claim count and claim incidence rate. Results: Of the 274 industry groups ranked by PI for all compensable workers' compensation claims, the following industry groups ranked the highest: NAICS 2381 Foundation, Structure, and Building Exterior Contractors, NAICS 4841 General Freight Trucking, and NAICS 2361 Residential Building Construction. Industry group PI rankings are reported for the seven most common costly occupational injury types. Conclusions: Use of a PI can focus prevention and research resources where they can be of most benefit.