Health conditions as mediators of the association between World Trade Center exposure and health-related quality of life in firefighters and EMS workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Hall CB ; Kelly KJ ; Olivieri B ; Prezant DJ ; Schwartz T ; Webber MP ; Yip J ; Zeig-Owens R
• Description:
  Objective: Studies have reported reduced health-related quality of life (HrQoL) in rescue/recovery workers for years postdisaster. Few have examined specific postdisaster physical and mental health conditions as mediators of the association between exposure to disaster and HrQoL. Methods: We used the Short Form-12 to measure HrQoL in 7190 male World Trade Center (WTC)-exposed first responders. Potential mediators included physician diagnoses obtained from medical records and mental health conditions obtained from questionnaires. Results: Among moderately and highly WTC-exposed workers, health conditions fully mediated the observed relationship between WTC-exposure and physical health functioning of HrQoL, and substantially mediated the association between WTC-exposure and mental health functioning. Conclusions: Because WTC-related health conditions explain the relationship between WTC-exposure and HrQoL, medical monitoring with treatment of affected populations is necessary to mitigate the adverse effects of WTC-exposure on HrQoL. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Emergency Responders Epidemiology Firefighters Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Men Mental Health Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety Surveys And Questionnaires
• Keywords:
  Emergency-responders Fire-fighters Health-surveys Medical-monitoring Medical-rescue-services Mental-health Occupational-exposure Physical-fitness Questionnaires Rescue-workers Worker-health

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• ISSN:
  1076-2752
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Contract
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  New York ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  200-206
• Volume:
  58
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20047426
• Citation:
  J Occup Environ Med 2016 Feb; 58(2):200-206
• Contact Point Address:
  Mayris P. Webber, DrPH, Bureau of Health Services, Fire Department of the City of New York, 9 Metrotech Center, 5E-63-K, Brooklyn, NY 11201
• Email:
  Mayris.Webber@fdny.nyc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2016
• Performing Organization:
  New York City Fire Department
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20110701
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• End Date:
  20170331
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:40a71f0af01a45282d75f21c1d6b10b53a8e9bc36e1ac373df31bdc65107ad320d25d757e6231dbe8bb396e8fe93cc5c4bed851bb5be5839bbea0c13ca9c7daf
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/202489/cdc_202489_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 190.95 KB ]