Identifying geographic areas and area-based characteristics associated with high work-related injuries among teens in Massachusetts

Young workers experience almost twice the rate of nonfatal injury as adults. Little research has explored geographic characteristics of occupational injuries among teens. This study aims to identify geographic areas of high work-related injury rates and associated area-based characteristics of working teens in Massachusetts. Nonfatal injury rates for 16-17-year old workers in each Public Use Microdata Area (PUMA) were calculated using injury cases from Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Teens at Work Project and the American Community Survey (ACS) estimates as denominator. A priori demographic and employment ACS variables were examined using correlation coefficients to measure their association with injury rates across all 48 PUMAs. From 2005-2009, the average injury rate was 15.5/1000 workers, with highest rates in PUMAs 4400 (31.1), 1700 (25.7), and 100 (25.9). Overall, PUMAs with higher work-related injury rates were associated with higher proportions of working teens who were Hispanic (r=0.32), in the accommodation and food services sector (r=0.40), have service occupations (r=0.34), and worked without pay in a family business or farm (r=0.33) (p<0.05). Specifically, PUMA 4400 had higher ratios of working teens who were males (1.16), non-US citizens (1.16), without high school education (1.09), in restaurants (2.42), and worked without pay in a family business or farm (7.63) compared to all other PUMAs. Characterizing the landscape of work-related teen injury rates across the state is important to guide public health surveillance and interventions. Community outreach should target geographic areas with higher injury rates and demographic and employment characteristics of their working teen population.