Resumen de Paradoxical Impact of a Patient-Handling Intervention on Injury Rate Disparity Among Hospital Workers.
Erika L. Sabbath, Jie Yang, Jack T. Dennerlein, Leslie I. Boden, Dean Hashimoto, Glorian Sorensen
Objectives. To test whether a comprehensive safe patient-handling intervention, which successfully reduced overall injury rates among hospital workers in a prior study, was differentially effective for higher-wage workers (nurses) versus low-wage workers (patient care associates [PCAs]). Methods. Data were from a cohort of nurses and PCAs at 2 large hospitals in Boston, Massachusetts. One hospital received the intervention in 2013; the other did not. Using longitudinal survey data from 2012 and 2014 plus longitudinal administrative injury and payroll data, we tested for socioeconomic differences in changes in self-reported safe patient-handling practices, and for socioeconomic differences in changes in injury rates using administrative data. Results. After the intervention, improvements in self-reported patient-handling practices were equivalent for PCAs and for nurses. However, in administrative data, lifting and exertion injuries decreased among nurses (rate ratio [RR] = 0.64; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.41, 1.00) but not PCAs (RR = 1.10; 95% CI = 0.74,1.63; P for occupation × intervention interaction = 0.02). Conclusions. Although the population-level injury rate decreased after the intervention, most improvements were among higher-wage workers, widening the socioeconomic gap in injury and exemplifying the inequality paradox. Results have implications for public health intervention development, implementation, and analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
