Disabled Workers Experience Higher Rates of Occupational Injuries

Employees with disabilities are injured on the job at a rate that is nearly three times what non-disabled workers face, according to researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and The Ohio State University.

Annually, the occupational injury rate for disabled U.S. workers is 6.0 per 100 workers, compared to 2.3 per 100 non-disabled employees. Rates of non-occupational injuries were 10 times higher for disabled workers – 16.4 per 100 disabled workers compared to 6.4 for employees without disabilities.

“The increase in occupational injuries to workers with disabilities found in our study shows the need for better accommodation and safety programs in the workplace and the need for a safer working environment,” said the study’s co-author Huiyun Xiang, M.D., Ph.D., MPH, principal investigator in the Center for Injury Research and Policy and an associate professor of the Division of Epidemiology at The Ohio State University College of Public Health.

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