Epidemiological Studies of Work-Related Injuries Among Law Enforcement Personnel

Abstract

All 1982 workers' compensation claims for traumatic injuries among the 7787 employees of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department were studied. Deputies serving in patrol assignments had the highest injury and disabling injury rates (30/100, 10/100). Female and male deputies had similar rates, but female trainees had much higher rates than male trainees (rate ratio=2·07, P<0·005). When a sample of claims (<it>n</it>=261) was studied, all back injuries and first-time back injuries were associated with overexertion (OR=5·9, <it>P</it><0·005 and OR=10·8, <it>P</it><0·005, respectively). When costs and days off work were analysed, the factor most strongly associated with these outcomes was litigation status. For litigated and non-litigated claims, respectively, the average cost per claim was $17 653 vs. $646 (<it>P</it><0·0001) and average number of days off was 212 days vs. 5 days (<it>P</it><0·001).