School
School of Public Health
Document Type
Dissertation
Department (new version)
Public Health
Date of Award
2000
Degree Name by School
Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) School of Public Health
Abstract
Workers' compensation costs began a dramatic increase in the 1980s. During the late 1980s and early 1990s a wave of workplace safety initiatives and workers' compensation system reforms were promulgated by state governments. The state mandatory workplace safety initiatives can be classified into the following four specific categories: (a) mandatory employer health and safety program requirements, (b) mandatory employee safety committee requirements, (c) targeted safety initiatives directed toward high claims or high accident employers, and (d) state regulation of insurance carrier loss control services. Occupational injury rates declined in all states during the time period 1992–1997. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of the four types of mandatory state workplace safety interventions on injury severity rates during the time period 1992–1997 for the manufacturing sector at the 2-digit Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) level. A main effects Poisson regression model was utilized with the main effect being the 2-digit manufacturing SIC classifications. Various economic, demographic, and OSHA covariates were included in the model to account for state to state differences. The full Poisson regression model showed safety committee regulations to have a highly significant reducing effect on injury rates, χ 2 (1, N = 3286) = 10.1774, p = 0.0014. Safety program regulations were significant with a negative parameter estimate at the α = 0.10 level, χ 2 (1, N = 3286) = 3.5676, p = 0.0589. Although insurance carrier loss control requirements had a negative parameter estimate suggestive of an injury reducing capability, the effect in the full model was nonsignificant, χ 2 (1, N = 3286) = 0.8025, p = 0.3703. Insurance carrier loss control regulations along with the safety committee and safety program requirements were highly significant at the α = 0.01 level in the final reduced model. The parameter estimate for targeting initiatives was positive and nonsignificant in both the full and reduced models. This study provided important information concerning the benefit of certain types of state-level workplace safety interventions in terms of injury reduction. The four types of state safety regulations represent a departure from traditional hazard-specific OSHA standards. The study results are important to officials in state and federal agencies who are considering implementation of additional workplace safety regulations.
ProQuest Publication Number
ProQuest ID
9999260
ISBN
978-0-493-06875-6
Recommended Citation
Smitha, Matthew Wayne, "State safety law and loss prevention efforts as predictors of safety performance" (2000). All ETDs from UAB. 7211.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/7211
Comments
DrPH