HBV- and HCV- infected workers in the Japanese workplace.
Around three million Japanese are persistently infected with HBV or HCV. Though most of them work in various industries, little is known about the actual conditions in their workplaces. To clarify the workplace conditions of workers with hepatitis, three kinds of questionnaire surveys, answered by occupational health physicians and workers with hepatitis, were carried out. The rates of workers recognized as workers with hepatitis B or C by occupational health physicians were 0.82% and 0.48% of 130,092 workers, respectively. About 30% of workers with hepatitis were engaged in "hazardous work". The percentage of workers engaged in various types of hazardous work among workers with hepatitis was nearly the same as that among all Japanese workers. About 30% of occupational health physicians witnessed exacerbation of hepatitis in the workers at their workplaces, and 22% of workers with hepatitis experienced exacerbation of hepatitis. The rate of workers with hepatitis who had experienced exacerbation was not significantly different between workers with and without hazardous work. Workers with hepatitis have strong concerns about the relationship between work and exacerbation. As causes of exacerbation, occupational health physicians cited "unknown", "drinking" and "quit treatment" while workers with hepatitis answered "work-related causes", besides "unknown" and "drinking."
Narai
Rie
R
Department of Environmental Health, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyushu, Japan.
Oyama
Tsunehiro
T
Ogawa
Masanori
M
Yamaguchi
Tetsunosuke
T
Kinaga
Tsuyoshi
T
Murakami
Tomoe
T
Isse
Toyohi
T
Ozaki
Shin-Ichi
S
Yashima
Yasunori
Y
Okabayashi
Ken
K
Ochiai
Hideo
H
Yarita
Keiichiro
K
Fujino
Akihiro
A
Kawamoto
Toshihiro
T
D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006306:Health Surveys; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000453:epidemiology*; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009790:Occupations; D015995:Prevalence; D017132:Workplace