Self-Reported Hand Symptoms – a Role in Monitoring Health Care Workers for Latex Sensitization

Details

• Personal Author:
  Kelly KJ ; Klancnik M ; Petsonk, Edward L. ; Wang, Mei Lin
• Description:
  RATIONALE: Health care workers (HCW) can develop allergies and occupational asthma from proteins in latex gloves. Hand symptoms reported on questionnaires may be useful indicators of latex sensitization. METHODS: Questionnaires were completed by 804 HCW at two hospitals, recording the type and frequency of glove use and hand symptoms during latex glove use (itching, redness, rash without hives, hives without rash, hives with rash, cracking, and blisters). Health outcomes included latex sensitization indicated by positive skin prick test (SPT+) to standardized latex antigens (clone 600) and glove-related respiratory or systemic symptoms. HCW were grouped by number of hand symptoms reported: 0, 1-2, or >2. Group comparisons of glove use and health outcomes were made using Mantel-Haenszel chi-square. Using SPT+ to define latex sensitization and >2 hand symptoms as the clinical index test, the diagnostic values of sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (LR+), and negative predictive value (NPV) were computed using 2x2 tables. RESULTS: Increasing latex glove use was strongly related to increasing reports of hand symptoms. Hand symptoms were highly associated with glove-related respiratory and systemic symptoms. SPT+ was seen in 5% of HCW and increased with the number of hand symptoms (0=1.6%, 1-2=3.4%, 3-7=19.0%). Participants reporting >2 hand symptoms were 11 times more likely to show SPT+ compared to those with < / = 2 hand symptoms. The sensitivity, specificity, LR+, and NPV were 65%, 85.5%, 4.5, and 97.9%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Hand symptoms due to latex gloves are closely associated with latex sensitization, and may be useful in monitoring the health of HCW who use gloves. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Dermatitis Health Personnel Hypersensitivity Occupational Health Protective Clothing Respiratory Hypersensitivity Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety Skin Skin Diseases Surveys And Questionnaires Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Allergic-dermatitis Allergic-reactions Allergies Hand-protection Health-care-personnel Health-protection Health-surveys Pulmonary-system-disorders Questionnaires Respiratory-hypersensitivity Sensitivity-testing Statistical-analysis Surveillance Work-analysis Work-practices Worker-health Workplace-studies

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• ISSN:
  1073-449X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  Missouri ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 7 ; West Virginia ; Wisconsin
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DRDS - Division of Respiratory Disease Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  177
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20034850
• Citation:
  Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2008 Apr; 177(Meeting Abstracts):A524
• Email:
  elp2@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2008
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
• Supplement:
  Meeting Abstracts
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:975b4887884ddfc2bee3a01adcf80ae649f016aa7743b5c818acc5dea99c18fd069d079a2fb2be1911071de540c14f9adb24b8bcc09fc7e43bf79f81261c1219
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/186904/cdc_186904_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 387.73 KB ]