Background The severity of occupational injury in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany is usually analyzed using lost workdays, but in existing occupational injury surveillance research in China, the application of this index is rare.

Objective To evaluate the application value of lost workdays in non-fatal occupational injury surveillance, and provide a reference for the construction of occupational injury surveillance index system.

Methods The public data of European Statistics on Accidents at Work (ESAW) from 2010 to 2019 on non-fatal injury accidents in 27 member states of the European Union were used. Non-fatal occupational injury is defined as an injury event during occupational activities or at work resulting a victim's absence from work for ≥4 d. According to the European Statistics on Accidents at Work-Summary methodology, the lost workdays were divided into 8 categories (4-6 d, 7-13 d, 14-20 d, 21-30 d, 31-91 d, 92-182 d, 183 d and above, and unknown). Annual percentage change (APC) and the average annual percentage change (AAPC) were used to evaluate the overall trend changes in the incidence rate of non-fatal occupational injury accidents in different lost workdays from 2010 to 2019, and the non-fatal occupational injury accidents in key industries. The characteristics of the occurrence of non-fatal occupational injuries were analyzed in conjunction with the changes in non-fatal occupational injuries in different lost workdays in the industry.

Results From 2010 to 2019, the overall incidence of non-fatal occupational injury accidents in the European Union showed a downward trend, and the AAPC was −1.0% (P<0.05). The accident rates of lost workdays of 4-6 d and 92-182 d showed an upward trend, and the AAPC were 7.9% and 5.8% respectively (P<0.05). The average annual accident rates of non-fatal occupational injuries (≥4 d) in Categories C (manufacturing industry), E (water supply, sewage treatment, waste management and remediation), and F (construction industry) showed a linear downward trend, and the AAPC were −3.0%, −2.5%, and −1.5%, respectively (P<0.05). However, among them, the rate of non-fatal occupational injury accidents with 92-182 d of lost workdays in the manufacturing industry showed a significant upward trend, with an AAPC of 3.7% (P<0.001).

Conclusion Using lost workdays combined with APC and AAPC by Join-point linear regression analysis can measure the severity and trend changes of non-fatal occupational injury accidents in different industries and different lost workdays. This indicator has an important practical significance in evaluating the effectiveness of occupational injury prevention and control strategies adopted by countries and enterprises.