Differences in Patterns of Mortality Between Foreign-Born and Native-Born Workers Due to Fatal Occupational Injury in the USA from 2003 to 2010

This study assesses differences mortality patterns and relative hazard due to fatal occupational injuries between native and immigrant workers in the US. Fatal occupational injury data from 2003 to 2010 were examined using survival analysis based on proportional hazards models controlling for categorical variables of race, gender, occupation, and industry. Workers are stratified based on whether they are native to the US (n = 31952) or born abroad (n = 7096). Foreign-born workers are further stratified into region of birth. Foreign-born workers had an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.148 (95 % CI 1.109:1.189) relative to native workers. Stratifying foreign-born workers into region of origin revealed significantly higher adjusted risk of work fatality relative to native workers for most foreign regions. Of fatally injured workers, foreign-born workers have shorter survival before succumbing to traumatic injury during their time of occupational ‘exposure’ in the workforce. Native-born workers tend to incur fatal injuries at older ages after longer ‘exposure’.