Department of Health and Human Services

Occupational Health Indicators Project

North Carolina is one of 13 states participating in a collaborative project with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to enhance occupational health data collection systems and capacity. CSTE is a professional association of epidemiologists with a broad range of experience representing all U.S. states and territories. NIOSH is the portion of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that studies work-related injury and illness.

An occupational indicator is a specific measure of a work-related disease or injury or of factors associated with occupational health such as workplace hazards, availability of health services, cost, at-risk populations, and enforcement activities. The measures chosen for the Occupational Health Indicators Project are based on public health importance and the availability of easily obtainable data in most states. Gathering information in this format allows states to uniformly define, collect, and report work-related illness, injury and risk data. North Carolina has successfully used the project’s measures to establish a baseline, to track trends in the occupational health status of the working population, and to target those conditions most affecting our workers for more in-depth analysis. The data ultimately provides a road map for improving worker safety.

Together, the participating states released a 2005 report on 19 occupational health indicators that provides a snapshot of the health of workers in North Carolina and the 12 other states. The report, “Putting Data to Work: Occupational Health Indicators from Thirteen Pilot States for 2000” is available on the CSTE Web site at http://www.cste.org/pdffiles/newpdffiles/CSTE_OHI.pdf.

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