NIOSH has proposed pilot research to address two facets of nonfatal occupational injury reporting — understanding barriers and incentives to reporting occupational injuries and using the knowledge to assess and improve surveillance. Objectives are to (1) characterize and quantify the relative importance of incentives and disincentives to self-identifying work-relatedness at the time of medical treatment and to employers; (2) characterize individual and employment characteristics that are associated with non-reporting of workplace injuries and incentives and disincentives to reporting; (3) test the reliability of hospital abstractors to properly distinguish between work-related and non-work-related injuries; and (4) evaluate the feasibility, need, and requirements for a future larger study.
