Incidence of Work-Related Asthma in Members of a Health Maintenance Organization

Details

• Personal Author:
  Breen VR ; Buist AS ; Frazier EA ; Henneberger, Paul K. ; Heumann MA ; O'Connor EA ; Villnave JM ; Vollmer WM
• Description:
  Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate work-related asthma among health maintenance organization (HMO) members. Recent reports suggest that the incidence of work-related asthma may be much higher than Sentinel Event Notification Systems for Occupational Risks (SENSOR) data estimate. Methods: Using the HMO's electronic medical record, we identified 1747 persons with evidence of new or recurrent asthma. Interviews with 352 of them elicited information about workplace exposures, symptoms, and home environment. Industrial hygienists rated the potential asthmagenicity of the respondents' work environments. Results: Based on the industrial hygienist ratings and self-reported work-relatedness of asthma symptoms, we classified 33% of those interviewed as having potentially work-related asthma, suggesting an overall work-related asthma incidence/recurrence rate of 28 cases per 10,000. Conclusions: The contribution of occupation to the occurrence of adult onset asthma may be much higher than typically suggested in the literature. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Asthma Asthma, Occupational Communicable Disease Control Epidemiology Occupational Diseases Occupational Health Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety
• Keywords:
  Bronchial-asthma Disease-control Health-care Humans Occupational-diseases Occupational-health Pulmonary-system-disorders Respiratory-system-disorders Statistical-analysis Surveillance-programs
• ISSN:
  1076-2752
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Oregon ; OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DRDS - Division of Respiratory Disease Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  47
• Issue:
  12
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20029029
• Citation:
  J Occup Environ Med 2005 Dec; 47(12):1292-1297
• Contact Point Address:
  William M. Vollmer, PhD, Center for Health Research, 3800 N. Interstate Ave, Portland, OR 97227-1110
• Email:
  william.vollmer@kpchr.org
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2006
• NORA Priority Area:
  Disease and Injury: Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• Performing Organization:
  Kaiser Foundation Research Institute
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19980930
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• End Date:
  20010929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:46f08538d692162246ea4a80f1fb7360c6e8762fe1ec6698a30cd46b776d9ae77fb206e90a3c5482b24b0b83e15ee15b90f2491708c730b386c17231086cbb4c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/190105/cdc_190105_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 188.83 KB ]