In the United States, the estimated fatal work-related injury rate was 3.2 per
100,000 population in 2012 and the total registered number of deaths was 4,383.
The cause of death comprise six main groups: transportation accidents (41%),
violence and other injuries by persons or animals (17%), contact with objects
and equipment (16%), falls, slips, or trips (15%), exposure to harmful substances
or environments (7%) and fires and explosions (3%) (US Department
of Labor, 2013b). The highest rate of fatal work-related injury were among the
occupations of (1) construction, (2) transportation, (3) agriculture, forestry,
fishing, and hunting (US Department of Labor, 2013b). Concerningly, these
three over-represented occupational groupings comprise 60% (or 29.4 of 49million people ages 15 and older) of Vietnam’s labor force. (GSO, 2010). Consequently,
fatal work-related injuries are a major concern in Vietnam.
In Vietnam, a national mortality reporting system has functioned under the
auspices of the Ministry of Health since 1992. Commune-level health officials
record basic demographic data and information on causes of death, which is
stored in an official book, namely the A6 book. The A6 book with its using
guideline is designed for mortality registration on causes of death as a mandatory
routine work completed by a trained head of commune health station in
Vietnam. In 2006, there were 10,769 official established commune health stations
of 671 district health centers within 64 provinces nationwide that was the
government network of health care system. The data from the A6 is collated
by the district-level health service and is then forwarded to the provincial and
central-level governments. The commune-level officials maintain the reporting
system and in turn, are able to actively use the information gained to plan
commune-level health services. The system performs well in terms of its completeness
and classification of injury-related deaths (Stevenson et al., 2012).
Since the introduction of ”doi moi” (or economic reform) in 1986, Vietnam
has placed significant emphasis on economic development. Consequently, the
percentage of the population living on less than a dollar a day has fallen from
39.9% to 4.1% over a 15 year period from 1993 to 2008. Life expectancy is
currently 70.2 years for men and 75.6 years for women (GSO, 2010; UN, 2010).
Therefore, the working population is aging rapidly and there are more old people
working. This study examines the relationship between age and the risk of
fatal work-related injuries in Vietnam in 2007.