Investigating the long-term change of injury pattern on severity, accident types and sources of injury in Taiwan's manufacturing sector between 1996 and 2012

The purpose of this study is to explore the long-term changes of occupational injury patterns from macro-perspective. Correspondence analysis was applied to chart longitudinal changes in occupational injury patterns (including severity, accident type, and source of injury) based on 92,577 cases reported by manufacturing firms in Taiwan between 1996 and 2012. Cluster analysis revealed three phases for injury severity and two for accident type and source of injury. The Kruskal-Wallis test revealed whether and which injury severity, accident type and source of injury had significant difference among different phases. Factors such as business cycles and industrial structure that contribute to the change of occupational injury patterns were elucidated. The results showed that, even within an industry, the injury pattern and epidemiology vary according to contextual factors such as longitudinal business cycle and cross-sectional industrial structure. Safety policy or injury prevention evaluation must be implemented in response to the influence of contextual factors, industrial characteristics and the main industries.