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Clinical InvestigationsAsthmaAsthmatic Subjects Symptomatically Worse at Work: Prevalence and Characterization Among a General Asthma Clinic Population
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
The clinic population consisted of 900 referrals to The GageResearch Institute Asthma Clinic (a secondary-referral andtertiary-referral clinic) during a 19-year period (ie,between 1972 and 1990). At the initial referral visit, a questionnairewas completed by all patients that was suitable for computeranalysis. Questions included details of the nature and severityof respiratory symptoms, requirements for emergency visits and hospitaladmissions, triggering factors, details of the home
Prevalence of Asthma Worse at Work
Among the 682 adults who had received a clinical diagnosis ofasthma, the onset of asthma, according to their history, occurredduring adulthood in 435 (64%). Among the 435 patients, 310(71%) were employed at the time of their initial asthma clinic visit.Fifty-one patients reported at their initial visit that their asthmawas worse at work and was not worse on weekends or holidays off work(ie, 16% of the adult-onset employed asthmatics, 12% ofall the adult-onset asthmatic subjects, and 7% of all
Discussion
Our findings of the reported prevalence of worsening asthma atwork of 7% among all adult asthmatic subjects (and 16% of alladult-onset employed asthmatic subjects) in a secondary-referral andtertiary-referral asthma clinic are very similar to those of previousreports among other populations of adult asthmaticsubjects.891011121314 The advantage of this study includes thedetailed, physician-administered questionnaire and the physiologicdocumentation of all subjects at the time of their initial
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We thank Justina Greene for assistance in datamanagement, Drs. Arthur Leznoff, Shelley Mintz, Peter Thomas, and thelate Geoff Davies for contributing to the completion of patientquestionnaires, and Laurel O'Connor for secretarial assistance.
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Work-related asthma in a sample of subjects with established asthma
2017, Respiratory MedicineCitation Excerpt :These studies show a lower prevalence of WEA respect to our survey, but our population and our methods of assessment (e.g. the questionnaire) were different with respect to Tarlo and Saarinen studies. Tarlo studied a clinic population (without an age limit) during a 19-year period, and it is likely that these patients represented a more severe subgroup of asthmatic subjects [9]. On the contrary, Saarinen carried out a population-based cross-sectional survey of asthmatic subjects (aged 20–65 yrs) and the respondents were asked about the average frequency of work-related asthma symptoms during the last month; these two aspects of the study might have reduced the rate of perception of the work exposure effect [27].
Asthma in the Workplace
2015, Murray and Nadel's Textbook of Respiratory Medicine: Volume 1,2, Sixth EditionDiagnosis and frequency of work-exacerbated asthma among bakers
2013, Annals of Allergy, Asthma and ImmunologyOccupational asthma
2013, Clinical Immunology: Principles and Practice: Fourth EditionDirect Health Care Costs of Occupational Asthma in Spain: An Estimation From 2008
2012, Archivos de Bronconeumologia