Mortality in health care workers in South Africa-PMR analysis using three comparison groups.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Kielkowski D ; Robinson C ; Wilson K
• Description:
  Introduction: Health care workers are a valuable skilled resource. They are exposed to numerous harmful agents at work from communicable diseases to chemical and radioactive exposures. Morbidity data for this group are scarce so mortality analysis is usually performed to identify increases in underlying causes of death compared to other occupational groups. Methods: Mortality data for registered deaths in 1995 and 1996 were coded for occupation and used to extract data for economically active age groups (15-64 years). Occupation was condensed into four main groups, health care workers, professionals and other white collar, and blue collar workers. Mortality odds ratios (MOR) and 95% CI were calculated for the major disease groups in ICD 10. Those disease groups which indicated a significant increase in MOR were broken down further for analysis. Results: 321 635 deaths occurred in the economically active age group, 1061 in health care workers, 10 151 in professionals and 72 489 in other occupations. Significantly increased mortality ratios were found for neoplasm in health care workers compared to both professionals and other occupations MOR 1.35 (95% CI 1.1 to 1.6) and MOR 1.71 (95% CI 1.4 to 2.1) respectively. The specific increase in cancers was due to breast cancer MOR 2.99 (95% CI 1.9 to 4.8) and cancer of the uterus and cervix MOR 2.9 (95% CI 1.5 to 5.5). When data were stratified by sex, the observed increases remained only for breast cancer in women, and cardio-vascular disease for men. Both genders had increased MORs for injuries and external causes of death. Conclusion: Health care workers were found to be at increased risk of death due to neoplasm and injuries. Current coding of occupation needs to be revised so similar analysis can be conducted in the future. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aging Cardiovascular Diseases Cardiovascular System Chemistry Health Personnel Men Morbidity Mortality Neoplasms Occupational Health Radiation Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Women Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Workers; Health-care-personnel; Exposure-levels; Risk-factors; Work-environment; Diseases; Disease-transmission; Chemical-composition; Chemical-properties; Radioactive-materials; Morbidity-rates; Mortality-rates; Age-groups; Neoplasms; Cancer; Humans; Men; Women; Injuries; Breast-cancer; Cardiovascular-disease; Health-care-personnel
• ISSN:
  1351-0711
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  California ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20045663
• Citation:
  Occup Environ Med 2010 Sep; (Suppl 1):A-20
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2010
• Performing Organization:
  University of California, Berkeley
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20070801
• Source Full Name:
  Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• Supplement:
  1
• End Date:
  20110731
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7dc847c09aedf140bc731323e8446b4703641ae07d6ad9e7b7238120dab30b8f7dcaa9b938d34d035f87873a0fe7fec262d5d13dcaf290925445e82b6de3b57d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/248272/cdc_248272_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 168.02 KB ]