Prevalence of workplace exacerbation of asthma symptoms in an urban working population of asthmatics.
OBJECTIVE
We used an interviewer-administered questionnaire to investigate workplace exacerbation of asthma symptoms (WEAS) among low-income, minority, working asthmatics admitted Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City from 2001 to 2002. We hypothesized that a high prevalence of WEAS would be found in this population among all jobs held and a subset of individual occupational classifications.


RESULTS
Of 301 subjects, 51% reported WEAS in their current or most recent job; 71% reported WEAS in any job. Prevalences (95% confidence intervals) of WEAS in common job classifications were 61% (49-73%) in janitorial jobs, 50% (33-67%) in garment and textile manufacturing jobs, and 38% (23-55%) in construction jobs.


CONCLUSIONS
WEAS is prevalent in this urban minority population.
Berger
Zackary
Z
Department of Environmental Medicine, Division of Epidemiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA. Zackary.berger@med.nyu.edu
Rom
W N
WN
Reibman
J
J
Kim
M
M
Zhang
S
S
Luo
L
L
Friedman-Jiménez
George
G
D000328:Adult; D000485:Allergens / Q000633:toxicity; D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009519:New York City / Q000453:epidemiology; D009790:Occupations / Q000145:classification; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population; D017132:Workplace
D000485:Allergens