Risk factors differences for occupational injuries among immigrants versus natives in Sweden

BackgroundImmigration to Sweden has increased since 1960.

This increase has shown variations in country of origin and reason for migration, with a higher proportion of refugees in recent years. Immigrants are over-represented in manual jobs requiring low-educational attainment.

Studies from other countries show immigrants have a higher risk of occupational injuries due to accidents (OIA) compared to native workers.

Potential explanations include more hazardous work environment, lack of experience, lack of education and/or safety training, and precarious employment.

However, we are lacking knowledge of the trends and relative importance of any of these factors among the Swedish immigrant population.

Furthermore, we lack knowledge about differentials related to reason for immigration, for specific occupations/economic activities, and how these risks can be prevented.

To our knowledge, there is no Swedish research aiming to understand immigrants’ risk of OIAs.ObjectivesThe main aim of this project is to investigate OIA risk factors among immigrants in Sweden, exploring subgroups of this population, comparing them with native Swedes.

We will explore: 1) trends of OIAs over time, 2) how immigrants’ risk of OIAs differs compared to native Swedes, with regards to: a. age, sex, education, b. country, region of origin, c. period of immigration, and d. time since immigration; and 3) differences in risk, exploring a. occupations/economic activities, b. employment tenure and occupational experience, and c. precarious employment.MethodData on migration status and OIAs will be obtained from Swedish registers.

Multivariate analyses will be conducted with foreign-born status as an independent variable and OIAs as the outcome variable, using Swedish-born as the reference group. We will stratify analyses on different sub-groups of immigrants.

We will collaborate with different departments at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm University, and with researchers from Massachusetts, USA.