Abstract
Limited information of occupational injury statistics within academic settings exists. Universities and colleges are an important and insightful work environment due to the varied nature of the work performed by employee groups. The objective of this study was to describe occupational injuries for all work groups in a large research intensive university. A retrospective database analysis was conducted on 2029 employee incident reports over a five year period (2000–2004) to determine general and departmental prevalence of injury types, locations, and mechanisms. Demographic analysis revealed an average age of 42 years and 9 years of work experience. Overall, the most frequent injuries were to the hand (40%), were musculoskeletal in nature (42%), and resulted from being "struck or contacted by" (33%). The greatest number of incidents occurred in food services, followed by physical plant and staff services. Closer examination of incidents reported by food services indicated 53% of injuries occurred to the hand and 72% required first aid. Notable too was that 19% of physical plant injuries occurred to the back, but these reports accounted for 40% of total back injuries and 50% of all lost time claims in the total database. Further epidemiological research in academic institutions is needed to better understand the inherent injury risk in this work sector.