On improvement of communication between producers and users of epidemiological and statistical information on health of workers and their occupation.
In order to assess the health status of workers at the national or regional level there are necessary expensive studies on the morbidity of various occupational groups. The papers turns the attention to ambulatory care data that may be used successfully to measure directly through ambulatory medical encounters the health status of working population and its subgroups. To overcome a major weaknesses in primary health statistics a special form for survey of occupational morbidity in primary health center has been worked out. The form is very simply to fill in and most of the informations to be needed are in precoded form and it helps greatly in processing the items of information necessary for calculation of morbidity rates generated from health primary activities. This ambulatory care record should be filled in by a selected general practitioner at each visit in district ambulatories, chosen randomly from all ambulatories in the whole country or in the whole region, i.e., in Lombardy. In the statistical analysis the data collected through the survey continuously can be related to the population characteristics, such as sex, age distribution and minor or major occupational groups. The authors believe that this simple approach may be used sensible for monitoring the health status of the population in relation to occupational hazards and for the planning and management of primary health services.
Jedrychowski
W
W
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University Medical School, Cracow, Poland.
Maugeri
U
U
Jedrychowska
I
I
D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003142:Communication; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009786:Occupational Health Services / Q000592:standards; D009790:Occupations / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data