Analysis of workers' compensation claims associated with manual materials handling

Workers' compensation claims associated with manual materials handling (MMH) represent the single largest source of claims and costs. Surprisingly, there have been few analyses of such losses associated with MMH. An examination of the nature of the injuries associated with MMH as well as the body parts most frequently affected can lead to a better understanding of the losses attributed to MMH to suggest further research efforts. A large sample of MMH claims was analysed and stratified with respect to body part affected and the nature of the injury. The outcome measures examined were frequency (number of claims) and severity (cost measures) of the claims. The analyses revealed that the lower back area and upper extremities were the body parts associated with approximately 70% of the claims. Strain was the nature of injury most frequently reported (51.3%). Lower back area strains were the most frequently reported nature of injury and body part combination. Additionally, an analysis of median claims costs revealed the occurrence of a small number of very expensive traumatic injuries.