Prevención

Safety Science 51 (2013) 250–256

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Safety Science
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ssci

Evaluation of the effectiveness of occupational injury prevention programs at the company level
María López-Ruiz a,b,⇑, José Miguel Martínez a,b, Josep Ma Gil c, Pere Boix a,b, Ana M García a,b,e, Fernando Rodrigo a,b,d, Albert Moreno f,Fernando G Benavides a,b
a

CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Spain Centro de Investigación en Salud Laboral, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain Unidad de Epidemiología, Unión de Mutuas, Spain d Instituto Sindical de Trabajo, Ambiente y Salud, Spain e Departamento de Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública, Universidad de Valencia, Spain f Direcció General de Salut Laboral, Conselleria deTurisme i Treball, Illes Balears, Spain
b c

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of an occupational injury prevention program, known as the Preferential Action Plan (PAP), focused on companies with high incidence rates of occupational injuries. We studied 1189 companies in the industrial, construction and services sectors between 1999 and2007 in the Valencia region (Spain). Our sample included 507,262 workers, among whom 44,250 nonfatal occupational injuries with at least a workday lost were registered. Companies included in a PAP program were divided into three intervention groups, according to the year that each company entered into a PAP (2000, 2001, and 2002). We calculated annual percentage change in incidence rates ofoccupational injuries for companies with a PAP and for those without a PAP (comparison group), and trends in the incidence rates of occupational injuries were compared between each intervention group and the comparison group. The results showed that the trend in the occupational injury rate declined 12%, 14% and 11% annually for the 2000, 2001, and 2002 intervention groups respectively, and around 5% forthe comparison group. The differences in intervention and comparison group trends were found to be statistically significant. This pattern is observed by company size and activity sector, length of sick leave, and type of injury. According to these results, the use of PAPs in companies with high incidence rates of occupational injuries seems to be effective in the prevention of occupationalinjuries. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 1 February 2012 Received in revised form 29 June 2012 Accepted 29 June 2012

Keywords: Occupational injuries Occupational health Evaluation Public policies

1. Introduction Occupational injuries remain a priority for public health in developed countries, although incidence rate trends have been declining in recent years(Hämäläinen et al., 2006; Benavides et al., 2008). This decline is widespread in developed countries, though Spain is amongst the developed countries with the highest incidence rates and has experienced a less pronounced decline (Ahn et al., 2004; Loomis et al., 2003; Benavides et al., 2005). Nevertheless, 582,591 non-fatal occupational injuries at work with at least a workday lost and 568 fataloccupational injuries at work were registered in Spain in 2010, excluding commuting accident injuries. The rates, for this year, were 32 non-fatal occupational injuries per 1000 workers and three fatal occupational injuries

⇑ Corresponding author at: Centro de Investigación en Salud Laboral, Departament de Ciències Experimentals i de la Salut, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Edificio PRBB, c/Dr.Aiguader, 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain. E-mail address: maria.lopez@upf.edu (M. López-Ruiz).
0925-7535/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2012.06.026

per 100,000 workers (Ministerio de Trabajo e Inmigración). Occupational injury is a problem with a substantial cost; in Australia the economic cost of occupational injuries between 2004 and...