Evaluation of the effectiveness of occupational injury prevention programs at the company level

The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of an occupational injury prevention program, known as the Preferential Action Plan (PAP), focused on companies with high incidence rates of occupational injuries. We studied 1189 companies in the industrial, construction and services sectors between 1999 and 2007 in the Valencia region (Spain). Our sample included 507,262 workers, among whom 44,250 nonfatal occupational injuries with at least a workday lost were registered. Companies included in a PAP program were divided into three intervention groups, according to the year that each company entered into a PAP (2000, 2001, and 2002). We calculated annual percentage change in incidence rates of occupational injuries for companies with a PAP and for those without a PAP (comparison group), and trends in the incidence rates of occupational injuries were compared between each intervention group and the comparison group. The results showed that the trend in the occupational injury rate declined 12%, 14% and 11% annually for the 2000, 2001, and 2002 intervention groups respectively, and around 5% for the comparison group. The differences in intervention and comparison group trends were found to be statistically significant. This pattern is observed by company size and activity sector, length of sick leave, and type of injury. According to these results, the use of PAPs in companies with high incidence rates of occupational injuries seems to be effective in the prevention of occupational injuries.