Data warehouse for detection of occupational diseases in OHS data.
BACKGROUND
Occupational health and safety (OHS) services collect a wide range of data during health surveillance.


OBJECTIVE
To build a 'data warehouse' to make OHS data available for research and to investigate sector-specific health problems.


METHODS
Medical data were extracted, transformed and loaded into the data warehouse. After validation, data on lifestyle, categorized medication use, ICD-9-CM encoded sickness absences and health complaints, collected between 2010 and 2014, were analysed with logistic regression to compare proportions between employment sectors, taking into account age, gender, body mass index (BMI) and year of examination.


RESULTS
The data set comprised 585000 employees. Average age and employment seniority were 39 ± 12 and 8 ± 9 years, respectively. BMI was 26 ± 5 kg/m(2). Health complaints, medication use and sickness absence significantly increased with BMI and age. The proportion of employees with health problems was highest in health care (64%), government (61%) and manufacturing (60%) and lowest in the service sector. In all sectors, 10% of workers reported locomotor health problems, apart from the service sector (8%) with similar results for medication consumption. Neuropsychological drugs were more frequently used by health care workers (8%). The transport sector contained the highest proportion of cardiological medication users (12%). Finally, 30-59% of employees reported at least one sickness absence episode. Sickness absence due to locomotor issues was highest in manufacturing (11%) and health care (10%), followed by government (9%) and construction (9%).


CONCLUSIONS
Significant differences in indices of workers' health were observed between sectors. This information is now being used in the implementation of a sector-oriented health surveillance programme.
IDEWE, External Service for Prevention and Protection at Work, Interleuvenlaan 58, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Centre for Environment and Health, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Lode.godderis@idewe.be.
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Godderis
IDEWE, External Service for Prevention and Protection at Work, Interleuvenlaan 58, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium.
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Mylle
IDEWE, External Service for Prevention and Protection at Work, Interleuvenlaan 58, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium.
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Coene
IDEWE, External Service for Prevention and Protection at Work, Interleuvenlaan 58, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium.
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Verbeek
IDEWE, External Service for Prevention and Protection at Work, Interleuvenlaan 58, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium.
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Viaene
IDEWE, External Service for Prevention and Protection at Work, Interleuvenlaan 58, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium.
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Bulterys
IDEWE, External Service for Prevention and Protection at Work, Interleuvenlaan 58, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium.
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Schouteden
D000041:Absenteeism; D000328:Adult; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D008297:Male; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009786:Occupational Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011159:Population Surveillance; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014938:Work Capacity Evaluation
Data collection; information storage and retrieval; occupational diseases; occupational health services; population surveillance; public health.