The effect of time of day on injury patterns amongst adolescents in Australia

Abstract

Labour force participation of adolescents in Australia is growing at an unprecedented rate. This increased participation is coupled with a growing realisation of the vulnerability of adolescents in the labour market in terms of occupational injury. Despite recent evidence that time of day may be an important determinant of adolescent injuries, the impact of non-standard and night work on adolescent injury rates has received scant attention to date. The current study addresses this shortcoming by examining injury patterns of 3201 working adolescents in Queensland. Results revealed that female adolescents are 2.5 times more likely to sustain an injury on day shift and 4.71 times more likely to sustain an injury on night shift than their adult counterparts when total work hours are taken into consideration. Similar results were found for male adolescents with an injury to work hours ratio of 2.19 on day shift and 3.05 on night shift. These findings point to the value of considering the temporal pattern of adolescent work in future research aimed at minimising injuries at work and improving the work experience of tomorrow's workforce.