Are female healthcare workers at higher risk of
occupational injury?
Hasanat Alamgir1
, Shicheng Yu1
, Sharla Drebit1
, Catherine Fast2 and Catherine Kidd2
Background Differential risks of occupational injuries by gender have been examined across various industries.
With the number of employees in healthcare rising and an overwhelming proportion of this workforce
being female, it is important to address this issue in this growing sector.
Aims To determine whether compensated work-related injuries among females are higher than their male
colleagues in the British Columbia healthcare sector.
Methods Incidents of occupational injury resulting in compensated days lost from work over a 1-year period for
all healthcare workers were extracted from a standardized operational database and the numbers of
productive hours were obtained from payroll data. Injuries were grouped into all injuries and musculoskeletal
injuries (MSIs). Detailed analysis was conducted using Poisson regression modelling.
Results A total of 42 332 employees were included in the study of whom 11% were male and 89% female.
When adjusted for age, occupation, sub-sector, employment category, health region and facility, female
workers had significantly higher risk of all injuries [rate ratio (95% CI) 5 1.58 (1.24–2.01)] and
MSIs [1.43 (1.11–1.85)] compared to their male colleagues.
Conclusions Occupational health and safety initiatives should be gender sensitive and developed accordingly.
Key words Gender; healthcare workers; musculoskeletal injury; occupational injury.