Injuries occur more frequently among individuals with multiple jobs

Date: Nov-14-2013According to new research from the American Journal of Public Health, individuals who work multiple jobs have a greater likelihood of injury than those with single jobs.

The study analyzed data from the National Health Interview Survey, which included interviews over a 15-year period from 1997 to 2011 among 268,615 participants. In-house interviews included questions about job characteristics and injuries.

Results from the study indicated that 8.4 percent of employed U.S. residents worked multiple jobs, and these individuals were found to have a 27 percent higher rate of work-related and a 34 percent higher rate of non-work related injury than individuals who worked one job. Multiple job holders who had a particularly elevated risk of injury were women, younger workers between the ages 18-44, blue collar workers, those never married or living with a partner and those with some college education. Researchers speculate potential reasons for their findings may include fatigue from long work hours, lack of sleep, inexperience in one or more jobs, or other stresses related to alternating between different jobs.

"Injury research and standard surveillance systems have disregarded multiple job holding, instead describing injury morbidity in terms of exposures at the primary job or the job in which the worker was working when injured. Furthermore, most of the current injury surveillance systems and standard employment surveys in the United States do not account for the dynamic fluctuations in work forms present today," researchers explain.

Courtesy: Medical News Today Note: Any medical information available in this news section is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional.