Dust exposure and the impact on hospital readmission of farming and wood industry workers for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

OBJECTIVES: It is still not well established how occupational air pollutants affect the prognosis of asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This study uses nationwide Danish registers and quantitative dust industry exposure matrices (IEM) for the farming and wood industries to estim...

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Main Authors: Anne Vested, Henrik A Kolstad, Ioannis Basinas, Alex Burdorf, Grethe Elholm, Dick Heederik, Gitte H Jacobsen, Hans Kromhout, Øyvind Omland, Inger Schaumburg, Torben Sigsgaard, Jesper M Vestergaard, Inge M Wouters, Vivi Schlünssen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nordic Association of Occupational Safety and Health (NOROSH) 2021-03-01
Series:Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health
Subjects:
Online Access: https://www.sjweh.fi/show_abstract.php?abstract_id=3926
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author Anne Vested
Henrik A Kolstad
Ioannis Basinas
Alex Burdorf
Grethe Elholm
Dick Heederik
Gitte H Jacobsen
Hans Kromhout
Øyvind Omland
Inger Schaumburg
Torben Sigsgaard
Jesper M Vestergaard
Inge M Wouters
Vivi Schlünssen
author_facet Anne Vested
Henrik A Kolstad
Ioannis Basinas
Alex Burdorf
Grethe Elholm
Dick Heederik
Gitte H Jacobsen
Hans Kromhout
Øyvind Omland
Inger Schaumburg
Torben Sigsgaard
Jesper M Vestergaard
Inge M Wouters
Vivi Schlünssen
author_sort Anne Vested
collection DOAJ
description OBJECTIVES: It is still not well established how occupational air pollutants affect the prognosis of asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This study uses nationwide Danish registers and quantitative dust industry exposure matrices (IEM) for the farming and wood industries to estimate whether previous year dust exposure level impacts hospital readmissions for workers diagnosed with asthma or COPD. METHODS: We identified all individuals with a first diagnosis of either asthma (769 individuals) or COPD (342 individuals) between 1997 and 2007 and followed them until the next hospital admission for asthma or COPD, emigration, death or 31 December 2007. We included only individuals who worked in either the wood or farming industries at least one year during follow-up. We used logistic regression analysis to investigate associations between dust exposure level in the previous year and hospital readmission, adjusting for sex, age, time since first diagnosis, socioeconomic status, and labor force participation. RESULTS: Asthma readmissions for individuals with low and high dust exposure were increased [adjusted rate ratio (RR_adj) 2.52, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.45–4.40] and RR_adj 2.64 (95% CI 1.52–4.60), respectively. For COPD readmission, the risk estimates were RR_adj 1.36 (95% CI 0.57–3.23) for low and RR_adj 1.20 (95% CI 0.49–2.95) for high exposure level in the previous year. For asthma readmission, stratified analyses by type of dust exposure during follow-up showed increased risks for both wood dust [RR_adj 2.67 (95% CI 1.35–5.26) high exposure level] and farming dust [RR_adj 3.59 (95% CI 1.11–11.59) high exposure level]. No clear associations were seen for COPD readmissions. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that exposure to wood or farm dust in the previous year increases the risk of hospital readmission for individuals with asthma but not for those with COPD.
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spelling doaj.art-daa7f966d1e647a4a7e1b0a14e56e1be2022-12-21T19:43:57ZengNordic Association of Occupational Safety and Health (NOROSH)Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health0355-31401795-990X2021-03-0147216316810.5271/sjweh.39263926Dust exposure and the impact on hospital readmission of farming and wood industry workers for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)Anne Vested0Henrik A KolstadIoannis BasinasAlex BurdorfGrethe ElholmDick HeederikGitte H JacobsenHans KromhoutØyvind OmlandInger SchaumburgTorben SigsgaardJesper M VestergaardInge M WoutersVivi SchlünssenDepartment of Occupational Medicine, Danish Ramazzini Centre, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.OBJECTIVES: It is still not well established how occupational air pollutants affect the prognosis of asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This study uses nationwide Danish registers and quantitative dust industry exposure matrices (IEM) for the farming and wood industries to estimate whether previous year dust exposure level impacts hospital readmissions for workers diagnosed with asthma or COPD. METHODS: We identified all individuals with a first diagnosis of either asthma (769 individuals) or COPD (342 individuals) between 1997 and 2007 and followed them until the next hospital admission for asthma or COPD, emigration, death or 31 December 2007. We included only individuals who worked in either the wood or farming industries at least one year during follow-up. We used logistic regression analysis to investigate associations between dust exposure level in the previous year and hospital readmission, adjusting for sex, age, time since first diagnosis, socioeconomic status, and labor force participation. RESULTS: Asthma readmissions for individuals with low and high dust exposure were increased [adjusted rate ratio (RR_adj) 2.52, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.45–4.40] and RR_adj 2.64 (95% CI 1.52–4.60), respectively. For COPD readmission, the risk estimates were RR_adj 1.36 (95% CI 0.57–3.23) for low and RR_adj 1.20 (95% CI 0.49–2.95) for high exposure level in the previous year. For asthma readmission, stratified analyses by type of dust exposure during follow-up showed increased risks for both wood dust [RR_adj 2.67 (95% CI 1.35–5.26) high exposure level] and farming dust [RR_adj 3.59 (95% CI 1.11–11.59) high exposure level]. No clear associations were seen for COPD readmissions. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that exposure to wood or farm dust in the previous year increases the risk of hospital readmission for individuals with asthma but not for those with COPD. https://www.sjweh.fi/show_abstract.php?abstract_id=3926 dust exposurewoodworkerwood industrycopdindustry exposure matrixhospital readmissionexposureasthmafarmingchronic obstructive pulmonary diseaselung diseasefarmerair pollutant
spellingShingle Anne Vested
Henrik A Kolstad
Ioannis Basinas
Alex Burdorf
Grethe Elholm
Dick Heederik
Gitte H Jacobsen
Hans Kromhout
Øyvind Omland
Inger Schaumburg
Torben Sigsgaard
Jesper M Vestergaard
Inge M Wouters
Vivi Schlünssen
Dust exposure and the impact on hospital readmission of farming and wood industry workers for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health
dust exposure
woodworker
wood industry
copd
industry exposure matrix
hospital readmission
exposure
asthma
farming
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
lung disease
farmer
air pollutant
title Dust exposure and the impact on hospital readmission of farming and wood industry workers for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
title_full Dust exposure and the impact on hospital readmission of farming and wood industry workers for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
title_fullStr Dust exposure and the impact on hospital readmission of farming and wood industry workers for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
title_full_unstemmed Dust exposure and the impact on hospital readmission of farming and wood industry workers for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
title_short Dust exposure and the impact on hospital readmission of farming and wood industry workers for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
title_sort dust exposure and the impact on hospital readmission of farming and wood industry workers for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease copd
topic dust exposure
woodworker
wood industry
copd
industry exposure matrix
hospital readmission
exposure
asthma
farming
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
lung disease
farmer
air pollutant
url https://www.sjweh.fi/show_abstract.php?abstract_id=3926
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