This study describes the characteristics of health services utilization by workers reporting work-related injuries. Data comes from the three first phases of a community-based cohort study about health and work that started in the year 2000, carried out with all workers from 2,512 families living in the city of Salvador, Bahia, that were selected by one-stage cluster area random sampling. Individual interviews were used for data collection. In this study, cases of work injuries reported during the 12 months before the interview (n=628) are analyzed. The majority (71.0%) of injured workers received medical treatment in facilities from the Unified Health System, SUS, a public health care system of universal coverage. Around 15% received treatment from private health insurance plans. Among SUS customers most workers have no formal job contracts, although insured workers also utilized public health care services. In sum, the SUS has expressive participation in the health care of injured workers independently of their entitlement for private health care.
work injuries; occupational injuries; health care access and utilization; health care for injured workers
