Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80521, USA.
Am J Ind Med. 2013 Mar;56(3):356-66. doi: 10.1002/ajim.22093. Epub 2012 Jul 10.
A better understanding of how workers' compensation (WC) costs are affected by an aging US workforce is needed, especially for physically demanding industries, such as construction.
The relationship between age and injury type on claim costs was evaluated using a database of 107,064 Colorado WC claims filed between 1998 and 2008 among construction workers.
Mean WC costs increased with increasing age for total cost (P < 0.0001), medical costs (P < 0.0001), and indemnity costs (P < 0.0001). For each one-year increase in age, indemnity, and medical costs increased by 3.5% and 1.1%, respectively. For specific injury types, such as strains and contusions, the association between age and indemnity costs was higher among claimants aged ≥65 compared to claimants aged 18-24.
Our findings suggest that specific injury types may be partially responsible for the higher indemnity costs among older construction workers, compared with their younger coworkers.
需要更好地了解工人赔偿（WC）成本如何受到美国劳动力老龄化的影响，特别是对于体力要求较高的行业，如建筑行业。
使用 1998 年至 2008 年间科罗拉多州建筑工人提交的 107064 份 WC 索赔数据库，评估了年龄与索赔成本之间的伤害类型之间的关系。
对于总成本（P < 0.0001）、医疗费用（P < 0.0001）和赔偿费用（P < 0.0001），WC 费用随年龄的增加而增加。年龄每增加一岁，赔偿和医疗费用分别增加 3.5%和 1.1%。对于特定伤害类型，如劳损和挫伤，与 18-24 岁的索赔人相比，≥65 岁的索赔人年龄与赔偿费用之间的关联更高。
我们的研究结果表明，与年轻同事相比，特定伤害类型可能是导致老年建筑工人赔偿费用较高的部分原因。
