. To find the impact of occupational exposure to irritants
or sensitizers on the occurrence, recurrence and worsening of asthma
and to identify unrecognized cases of occupational asthma in a general
asthma clinic population sample, we studied 768 subjects (age: 16-46
yrs) with a diagnosis of asthma and a current or previous occupational
activity. A trained survey worker administered a computer assisted
interview in order to collect data on their demographic characteristics,
smoking history, asthma severity, treatment, work history and current
work status.
Current or previous work did not appear to affect the severity of
asthma, though more activtiy limitations were observed among subjects
with current work (p=0.02).
Overall, subjects who reported symptoms from Work Related Asthma
(WRA), when compared to subjects without WRA, more frequently
(p<0.05) reported having more severe symptoms, assuming antiasthmatic therapy, and having changed their job because of
their asthma.
With regard to their occupational history, subjects with WRA were
more likely to work, or having worked in the past, in jobs at higher risk
of exposure to occupational risk factors (sector, p=0.05; job title, p=0.001,
respectively).
Our findings suggest that additional studies are needed to detect
factors that may hinder the recognition of WR
