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Upper and Lower Limb Work Injuries: A Question of Sex or Gender?

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Proceedings of the 21st Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2021) (IEA 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 220))

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Abstract

Gender differences in non-vehicle work injuries compensated records in Italy were studied for five years (2014–2018) using Inail (National Institute for Insurance against Injuries at work) Data Records. Results showed 357.306 women injuries and 908.139 men injuries with higher injury rate in both women 11‰ and men 19.1‰ with upper and lower limb differently injured. Upper limb injuries occurred more often among men (women 34% vs 41% men, p < 0.05) with hand more injured. Wrist and elbow were significantly injured among women (wrist OR: 2.09; IC95% 2.06–2.13 and elbow OR: 1.46; IC95% 1.42–1.50). A higher women’s injury rate was found in: health care activities (20‰, the highest number of work accidents among women 83.029), cleaning (19‰), transport (17‰) Women reported more wrist fractures in cleaning, wrist dislocation in healthcare and more wrist bruise in post-service activities. Lower limb injuries occurred more often among women (women 30% vs 26% men, p < 0.05) with more ankle (OR: 1.06; IC95% 1.05–1.08) and knee (OR: 1.10; IC95% 1.08–1.11), particularly ankle dislocation among cleaners and post-services and bruise of the knee in healthcare activities. The reasons of the high rate of wear and tear of wrist, elbow, ankle and knee among women in analyzed work activities are discussed taking s/g differences into account.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ENEA, National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Environment, SP Anguillarese SP 015, 00123, Rome, Italy

    Silvana Salerno

  2. INAIL, National Institute for Insurance Against Accidents at Work, Via Roberto Ferruzzi 38-40, 00143, Rome, Italy

    Claudia Giliberti

Authors
  1. Silvana Salerno
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  2. Claudia Giliberti
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Correspondence to Silvana Salerno .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Département de génie mécanique, Université de Moncton, Moncton, NB, Canada

    Nancy L. Black

  2. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    W. Patrick Neumann

  3. Toronto, ON, Canada

    Ian Noy

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Salerno, S., Giliberti, C. (2021). Upper and Lower Limb Work Injuries: A Question of Sex or Gender?. In: Black, N.L., Neumann, W.P., Noy, I. (eds) Proceedings of the 21st Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2021). IEA 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 220. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74605-6_62

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74605-6_62

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-74604-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-74605-6

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