Guidelines for the epidemiologic assessment of occupational asthma: report of the Subcommittee on the Epidemiologic Assessment of Occupational Asthma, Occupational Lung Disease Committee

Details

• Personal Author:
  Castellan, Robert M. ; Lewis, Dick ; Matte T ; Smith AB
• Description:
  The role of epidemiologic surveillance in detecting and controlling occupational asthma was discussed. The importance of initial investigations of sentinel cases of asthma by cross sectional, census sample evaluations was stressed. Questionnaires were considered essential components of the survey, serving the same function as the medical history in a clinical examination. Several methodological issues arising from questionnaire use were discussed including validity, especially in the absence of a true gold standard for asthma, and reliability. Physiologic assessment of occupational asthma was discussed including pulmonary function tests with and without bronchodilator treatment, spirometry before and after work shifts, ambulatory monitoring of peak expiratory flow rates over several weeks, and bronchial provocation with nonspecific agents such as histamine or methacholine. Environmental assessment was considered as a response to worker complaints, evaluation of worker exposures and engineering controls, and determination of workplace compliance to standards. Numerous specific recommendations were made to ensure the integrity, validity, and reliability of the initial evaluation design, questionnaire instruments, pulmonary function evaluations, and environmental monitoring procedures. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Asthma Asthma, Occupational Epidemiology Health Surveys Lung Lung Diseases Occupational Health Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety Staff Development Surveys And Questionnaires

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• Keywords:
  Bronchial-asthma Health-survey Industrial-medicine Lung-disorders NIOSH-Author Occupational-health-programs Occupational-respiratory-disease Pulmonary-function Pulmonary-system-disorders Surveillance-programs
• ISSN:
  0091-6749
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Georgia ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DRDS - Division of Respiratory Disease Studies ; OD - Office of the Director
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  84
• Issue:
  5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00194119
• Citation:
  J Allergy Clin Immunol 1989 Nov; 84(5):794-805
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1990
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Part Number:
  2
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c60e2a86b51152b82838dfdb4dde2642a2503163f8125efe5b32e9707ace3a8fe31ccb6c7ff6732aedf187e156fc8f201fbdf221028468c054993289382e487c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/204822/cdc_204822_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.42 MB ]