title: Risk of hand dermatitis among hairdressers versus office workers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The risk of irritant skin damage associated with hairdressing was estimated with the individual occupational exposure and other relevant factors having been taken into consideration.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cohort of 2352 hairdressing and 111 office apprentices was prospectively followed for the duration of their vocational training (3 years), 3 examinations having been made and 3 years of recruitment having been used [1992 (hairdressers only), 1993, 1994] in 15 vocational training schools in northwest Germany. The information of the final follow-up examination was used for the analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A multifactorial analysis taking several (constitutional) risk factors, which were unevenly distributed between the 2 groups, into account revealed a significantly increased risk for hairdressers when compared with office workers (odds ratio approximately 4.0) with a marked decline in the most recently recruited (1994) apprentice group. Other significant factors increasing the dermatitis risk were (i) low ambient absolute humidity, (ii) young age, and (iii) a certain higher range of "atopy score". If the individual profile of occupational exposure among hairdressers was also considered, unprotected wet work of more than 2 hours per day was found to be a significant risk factor.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Good skin protection, as operationalized in the present study, can diminish, but not eliminate, the risk of occupational irritant hand dermatitis among hairdressers.
authors.affiliation: University of Osnabrück, Department of Dermatology, Environmental Medicine and Health Theory, Germany. wuter@rz.uni-osnabrueck.de
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Uter
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pfahlberg
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gefeller
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Schwanitz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D009783:Dermatitis, Occupational / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006203:Hair Preparations / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006229:Hand Dermatoses / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009790:Occupations; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D006203:Hair Preparations