Burden of injury at a beverage manufacturing company

The burden of injury at a South African beverage manufacturing company was evaluated by retrospective analysis of the records of all employees who reported to the occupational health clinic with occupational injuries during the six-month review period. Records included compensation records of occupational injury; insurance claims and accident reports. The type; anatomical site; mechanism of injury and factors predictive of the number of sick days taken off work were examined using descriptive and interferential statistics. Department and gender were signifi cant predictors of days taken off work. Incorrect manual handling accounted for 64.6 of strain injuries. More employees were injured in the administrative support department than in the workshop department. Recommendations include the implementation of aggressive health promotion and injury prevention strategies to reduce the burden of injuries; more studies at different types of companies as well as the standardisation of data collection to provide reliable epidemiological information on occupational injuries