Occupational Exposures and Asthma in Health-Care Workers: Comparison of Self-Reports with a Workplace-Specific Job Exposure Matrix

Details

• Personal Author:
  Arif AA ; Benavides FG ; Delclos GL ; Gimeno D ; Zock JP
• Description:
  The authors compared self-reported occupational exposures with a workplace-specific job exposure matrix (JEM) in a 2004 survey of Texas health-care professionals (n = 3,650), by asthma status. Sensitivity, specificity, chance-corrected (kappa) and chance-independent (phi) agreement, and associations of self-reported exposures with asthma were compared with those for the JEM. Among asthmatics, the median sensitivity of self-reported exposures was 74% (range, 53-90); specificity was 64% (range, 27-74). For nonasthmatics, median sensitivity was 67% (range, 40-88) and specificity was 70% (range, 33-82). Sensitivity was higher among asthmatics for exposures involving perceptible odors. Specificity was higher among nonasthmatics for instrument cleaning and exposure to adhesives/solvents. Asthmatics showed better agreement with the JEM for patient-care-related cleaning (phi = 0.51 vs. 0.40); there was little difference for other exposures. In all cases, confidence intervals overlapped. Prevalence ratios were higher with self-reported exposures than with the JEM; differences were greatest for cleaning products, adhesives/solvents, and gases/vapors. However, confidence intervals overlapped with those obtained using the JEM. In asthma studies, differential reporting bias by health status should be taken into consideration. Findings favor using externally developed methods of exposure classification, although information gleaned from examining distributions of exposure self-reports, particularly among nondiseased persons, can provide useful information for improving the reliability of exposure ascertainment. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Asthma Asthma, Occupational Environmental Monitoring Epidemiology Health Personnel Hypersensitivity Irritants Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Respiratory Hypersensitivity Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety Solvents Surveys And Questionnaires

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• Keywords:
  Allergies Author Keywords: Asthma Bias Bronchial-asthma Chemical-cleaning Chemical-hypersensitivity Cleaning-compounds Epidemiologic Methods Exposure-assessment Health-care-personnel Occupational-exposure Occupational Exposure Pulmonary-system-disorders Questionnaires Respiratory-hypersensitivity Respiratory-irritants

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• ISSN:
  0002-9262
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 6 ; Texas
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  169
• Issue:
  5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20035067
• Citation:
  Am J Epidemiol 2009 Mar; 169(5):581-587
• Contact Point Address:
  Dr. George L. Delclos, Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Texas School of Public Health, P.O. Box 20186, Houston, TX 77225-0186
• Email:
  george.delclos@uth.tmc.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2009
• NORA Priority Area:
  Disease and Injury: Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• Performing Organization:
  University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20010930
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Epidemiology
• End Date:
  20050929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:2a241c77e9d3c9f40a034f6ebeed14896681e419dffdffa9afd1cd9b16e01657ca8fe78ca3e15acda23e9c7cb35909cda817e14ef440214979422f7e0831d7cc
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/187046/cdc_187046_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 220.11 KB ]