Incidence of musculoskeletal diagnoses for workers' compensation cases presenting to hospitals in Illinois (USA), 2017-2024.

OBJECTIVES

The goal of this study was to characterize the incidence of musculoskeletal conditions presenting to Illinois hospitals that are billed to workers' compensation.

METHODS

Musculoskeletal conditions were defined as those with M codes in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10-CM) with and without concurrent acute injuries (S & T codes).

RESULTS

From 2017-2024, there were 319,775 hospital presentations for work-related musculoskeletal diagnoses, of which 229,295 (69.5%) did not have a concurrent acute traumatic injury. Of those without a concurrent acute injury, 29.8% (n=66,210) had a musculoskeletal pain diagnosis without a specific non-pain musculoskeletal diagnosis, 8.5% (N=18,799) had a diagnosis of non-specific lower back pain, and 61.8% (N=137,286) had a specific musculoskeletal diagnosis.

CONCLUSIONS

Hospital data provide important information on work-related clinically significant conditions that may not be captured through other surveillance systems.