Examination of potential sources of bias in the US Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program

Details

• Personal Author:
  Attfield MD ; Laney AS
• Description:
  Objectives. We examined the potential influences of certain selection factors on the utility of the Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program (CWHSP) data for tracking disease distribution and trends. Methods. We combined data from the CWHSP and the Energy Information Administration to examine any influence of variable worker participation on observed disease prevalence. We evaluated effects of differential participation by coal mining region, temporal changes in employment, and active surveillance efforts. Results. The published findings of pneumoconiosis distribution and trends from the CWHSP were robust compared with the various participation factors that might have affected their validity for population-based estimates of disease burden. Exploration of factors that could potentially bias the findings generally led to small increases in the primary estimates, mostly for the early years of the program. Conclusions. We confirmed previously reported findings that there was a high prevalence of coal worker pneumoconiosis (CWP) around 1970-1974, a substantial decline in 1995-1999, and indications of an increase since then. Overall our findings suggest that the previously reported distribution and trends in CWP prevalence were broadly accurate. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Coal Coal Mining Lung Lung Diseases Mining Occupational Diseases Occupational Health Quality Control Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety

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• Keywords:
  Coal-mining Coal-workers-pneumoconiosis Information-retrieval-systems Lung-disorders Mining-industry Occupational-diseases Pneumoconiosis Pulmonary-system-disorders Quality-control Respiratory-system-disorders Statistical-quality-control Surveillance-programs

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• ISSN:
  0090-0036
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  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
• Pages in Document:
  165-170
• Volume:
  104
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20042666
• Citation:
  Am J Public Health 2014 Jan; 104(1):165-170
• Contact Point Address:
  A. Scott Laney, Surveillance Branch, Division of Respiratory Disease Studies, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1095 Willowdale Road, Mail Stop HG900.2, Morgantown, WV 26505-2888
• Email:
  alaney@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• NORA Priority Area:
  Mining
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Public Health
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b5932ac4b70dcaf4d90f613a5a7765ed839df077a58c5e97dd0c66daa00c2a3d6fa03a21718122e7460d535284c05da9ae74a450c8def20a4cb1046d8ef94562
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/194814/cdc_194814_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 535.21 KB ]