An Epidemiological Study On Occupational Acute Hand Injury And Its Economic Burden In Ningbo

Background: Occupational acute hand injury is a frequent occupational injury which is caused by acute event and transient exposure factor in working hours. Hand injury is the main injury in hospital emergency departments. As the developed industrial area, the number and incidence of hand injury is kept on high level in Ningbo. Hand disability not only affects working and living, but also causes heavy economic burden to family and society. It is urgent to research occurrence regularity and the causes of occupational hand injury to assess the economic burden, so as to establish efficient intervention measures.Methods: The subjects recruited in the project were patients with occupational acute hand injury from the hospitals in Ningbo. First, distribution and structure characteristic was presented with descriptive analysis. Second, the case-crossover study design was adopted to identify transient risk factors for occupational hand injury, and to research the influence of temporal factors. Finally, economic burden of hand injury was explored.Results: The results showed that occupational hand injury patients were male-dominated and most young of with 20-39 years old. Hand injuries mainly occurred in autumn and summer. Index finger was more injured, and majority of subjects suffered crush injury. Occupational hand injuries were concentrated in manufacturing (e.g. electrical machinery and electronics industry). The results of case-crossover study design showed six significant transient risk factors were identified: using malfunctioning equipment, performing an unusual work task, being distracted, using a different work method, rushing and feeling ill. Wearing gloves wasn't found to have an insignificant protective or risk effect on the occurrence of hand injury. The highest frequency of injury was observed from 08:00 AM to 11:00 AM. The possible occurrence of hand injuries increased after a long working time, which may be associated with fatigue. Different work shifts were associated with occurrence of hand injury. The average cost of occupational hand injury was 18094 RMB, and the indirect cost was 3.8 times higher than direct cost, which was similar to foreign research.Conclusions: According the above finding, the number of occupational of hand injury was in a high level in Ningbo, but the hand injury could be prevented. The pertinence preventive measures should be further strengthened to protect workers'health. The combination of DALY and human capital method was an effective method used to evaluate economic burden of occupational hand injury. Complex treatment of the patient with an injured hand at specialist centers allowed shorter treatment duration, improved treatment results, and decreased indirect expenses.