Comparison of lifestyle and substance use factors related to accidental injuries at work, home and recreational events

The purpose of this study was to examine whether risk factors vary for injuries that occur at work, at home, at recreational events and at multiple settings. Three major types of factors were investigated: lifestyle factors such as sleep, stress and exercise; substance use; and demographic characteristics. Data were obtained from a household survey of 882 Ontario adults. In order to determine whether different factors were related to different kinds of accidental injuries, χ² tests were conducted among five injury groups: no injuries; work; home; recreational; and multiple injury episodes (i.e. at least two separate injury episodes in two different settings). The first set of comparisons were conducted between those with zero injuries and each of the aforementioned four injury groups. Those with multiple injury episodes were significantly more likely than those with no injuries to be single, under the age of 30, and have lifestyle problems (i.e. sleep problems, financial problems and a desire for counselling) and substances use/problems (i.e. cigarettes, alcohol, licit and illicit drugs). For comparisons between each of the work, home and recreational injury groups and the no injury group, eight factors were significant altogether, but no single factor was significantly related to more than one injury group. Contrasts between all combinations of injury group pairs (i.e. excluding the no injury group) indicated that risk factors for those with multiple injury episodes differed significantly from those with home and recreational injuries for several characteristics. This exploratory study provides some support that risk factors may vary, depending on the injury group.