Work-related injuries increase chances of emergency treatment for opioids: study

Toronto — Injured workers, particularly those with physically demanding jobs, are more likely to visit an ER for an opioid-related incident, results of a pair of studies out of Canada suggest.

Researchers from the Institute for Work and Health and the Occupational Cancer Resource Centre performed separate analyses through the Occupational Disease Surveillance System. ODSS linked data from 1.7 million workers in Ontario, Canada, who had workers’ compensation claims accepted between 1983 and 2019 to ER and hospitalization records in the province from 2006 to 2020.

In the first study, published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health, the researchers found that people who have experienced a work-related injury were 2.4 times more likely to visit an ER for opioid-related treatment than those in the general working population. Workers previously injured on the job were also 1.5 times more likely to be hospitalized for opioid-related harms such as poisoning and mental and behavioral disorders.

The second study, published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, reveals that workers in multiple industries face elevated risk of opioid harms. The industries:

• Construction
• Mining and quarrying
• Transport equipment operation
• Machining
• Materials handling
• Mineral, metal, clay and chemical processing
• Food, wood and textile processing
• Forestry and logging

“Our results suggest that work-related injuries are associated with increased future risk of opioid harms,” Jeavana Sritharan, an OCRC researcher and co-author of both studies, said in a press release. “Part of the reason may be that workers in physically demanding jobs make up a disproportionate share of injured workers. But part of the reason may also be related to the experience of being injured and recovering from a work injury.”

The researchers say their findings can be used to “strategically target prevention and harm reduction activities in the workplace.”