title: [Differences in the prevalence of work related disorders among construction workers between the end of 90s and 2006].
abstract: The aim of this work is to analyse the prevalence of occupational diseases in construction industry, comparing the results of the first years of health surveillance (1996-2000) and today's situation. We compare the prevalence of occupational diseases observed in 1348 workers during the period 1996-2000 (mean age 36,4 years, DS 11,8; mean experience in construction industry 16,9 years, DS 12,3) and the one observed in 795 different workers during 2006 (mean age 38,8 years, DS 11,1; mean experience in construction industry 18 years, DS 16,6). The prevalence of occupational diseases is respectively 12.09% and 12.83%. But analysing the single pathology it's possible to observe important differences between the two groups. In the workers observed in 2006 there is a significant reduction in prevalence of hearing loss caused by chronic exposure to noise and in prevalence of vascular disease caused by hand-arm vibrations: respectively from 94,9 to 79,2 cases/1000 workers and from 6,7 to 2.6 cases/1000 workers. Musculoskeletal diseases instead are increased from 11,1 to 37,7 cases/1000 workers, showing more attention to the problem, better diagnostics ability and more recognition by public insurance agency for occupational diseases.
authors.affiliation: Unità Operativa Ospedaliera Medicina del Lavoro, Azienda Ospedaliera Ospedali Riuniti di Bergamo. mriva@ospedaliriuniti.bergamo.it
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Riva
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pavesi
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bartolozzi
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bancone
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mosconi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence