The aim of this review is to find the answers to two
questions: Do young workers have a higher risk of occupational
injuries? Are the injuries of young workers more
often fatal than those of older workers?
Previous reviews (Rhodes, 1983; Laflamme & Menckel,
1995; Salminen, 1996) have shown that injury rates tend to
decrease as age increases. The reviews have also shown that
the injuries of young workers are less serious than those of
older workers, because the fatality rate of young workers
was lower than that of older workers. Compared to these
earlier reviews, the strengths of this review are the larger
number of studies and that the studies are from many
different countries and industries.