BACKGROUND: We hypothesized that low socioeconomic status, employer-provided health insurance, low wages, and overtime were predictors of reporting workers compensation indemnity claims. We also tested for gender and race disparities.METHODS: Responses from 17,190 (person-years) Americans participating in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, 1997-2005, were analyzed with logistic regressions. The dependent variable indicated whether the subject collected benefits from a claim.RESULTS: Odds ratios for men and African-Americans were relatively large and strongly significant predictors of claims; significance for Hispanics was moderate and confounded by education. Odds ratios for variables measuring education were the largest for all statistically significant covariates. Neither low wages nor employer-provided health insurance was a consistent predictor. Due to confounding from the "not salaried" variable, overtime was not a consistently significant predictor.CONCLUSION: Few studies use nationally representative longitudinal data to consider which demographic and job characteristics predict reporting workers compensation indemnity cases. This study did and tested some common hypotheses about predictors.
Accidents, Occupational Adult