Teenage workers have unique occupational injury risks, raising the need to evaluate preventive training programs. This study examines the risk of occupational injury for workers under 19 before and after the release of Oregon Young Employee Safety Coalition (O[yes]) online safety awareness training in 2017.
Methods:
The Employed Labor Force tool was used to estimate the annual size of the teen workforce from 2013 to 2022 in Oregon. The count and share of first-month injuries (N = 18,694) among all worker compensation claims (N = 166,594) were also examined. General linear models estimated first-month injury risk by age group, controlling for sex, occupation, and insurer.
Findings:
Teenage workers’ first-month injury risk per 1,000 workers was similar before (2013–2016) and after (2017–2022) the O[yes] training (7.8 vs. 7.6). However, compared with older workers, the share of first-month injuries among all claims for teen workers decreased (RR: 0.88, p < .001), with no significant change for other ages.
Conclusions:
After the introduction of O[yes] training, the estimated injury risk did not change. However, the relative proportion of first-month injuries among teenage workers was lower than before. Further research is needed to evaluate training effectiveness and additional contributing factors.
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