Standardizing industrial hygiene data collection forms used by workers' compensation insurers

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Industrial Hygiene
• Data Management

Background:

• Workers' compensation insurers gather extensive industrial hygiene (IH) data in the U.S.
• Current IH data is fragmented and inaccessible for research due to a lack of standardization across insurers.
• Existing computerized systems create data silos, hindering broader analysis and surveillance efforts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To standardize industrial hygiene data collection among workers' compensation insurers.
• To assess the feasibility of pooling collected industrial hygiene data for research and surveillance.
• To identify a core set of essential data fields for IH air and noise surveys.

Main Methods:

• Collected IH air and noise survey forms from 10 workers' compensation organizations.
• Evaluated data fields for importance, developing a core study list.
• Conducted expert review of the core list with industrial hygienists and compared it to ACGIH-AIHA recommendations.

Main Results:

• Over half of the data fields on both air and noise survey forms were deemed "essential" (55% and 54%, respectively).
• Key fields related to worker and control observations were frequently missing (found less than 50% of the time).
• The finalized core data list included over half of the original fields, augmented by ACGIH-AIHA recommendations.

Conclusions:

• Essential data fields for standardizing industrial hygiene data collection were identified and validated.
• The identified core fields can be integrated into electronic data management systems for workers' compensation insurers.
• Future research should expand standardization to other IH survey types and explore electronic data transfer methods.