Incidence of Workers' Compensation Claims in Opioid-Using Truck Drivers.

Objective: This study examines the relationship between opioid use prevalence and subsequent filing of workers' compensation claims.
Methods: A retrospective cohort study design was utilized to examine data from drivers' initial commercial driver medical exam, employment data, and workers' compensation claims data.
Results: Data from 57,733 over 7 years were analyzed. Drivers who reported opioid use at their initial medical exam visit filed subsequent workers' compensation claims 1.81 times sooner (P = 0.0001; 95% CI 1.34, 2.44) than drivers who did not report opioid use at their CDME when controlling for age, gender, BMI, and diastolic blood pressure.
Conclusions: These findings provide information that may aid in improving regulations to control for incidents, training programs to inform professional drivers of factors that increase accident risk and educating prescribers about increased risks of injury among opioid-using drivers.
Competing Interests: Dr Thiese has been a consultant for the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and Reed Group for development of the Best Practice Guidelines, Union Pacific Railroad, Association of American Railroads and is a part owner in SafeLane Health. The other authors have no declared potential conflicts of interest.
(Copyright © 2022 American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.)