title: An overview of occupational hazards amongst UK Otolaryngologists.
abstract: Occupational-related hazards (OH) are noted to be prevalent within the medical community. However, there is limited evidence of its effects amongst ENT surgeons. A national survey was carried out with the assistance of ENT-UK to investigate the prevalence of various OH amongst ENT doctors in the UK. A literature search was also conducted to search for articles within English literature worldwide on this subject. 70.6 % of the responding 323 ENT surgeons had reported a form of OH throughout their career. Musculoskeletal pain was the most commonly reported (47.4 %) followed by stress/psychiatric morbidities (38.4 %) and sharps injuries (26.6 %). We found no correlation between OH and consultants/non-consultant status, time spent in ENT and subspecialty. Our literature search revealed 16 articles pertaining to OH amongst ENT doctors. OHs are prevalent within the UK ENT community. There is good evidence within literature on musculoskeletal pain, however, higher level studies are required to thoroughly investigate the other hazards.
authors.affiliation: Ipswich Hospital Trust, Heath Road, Suffolk, IP4 5PD, UK. shivan5@yahoo.com.|, 143 Stephendale Road, Fulham, London, SW6 2PR, UK. shivan5@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Ananth
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vijendren
authors.affiliation: Ipswich Hospital Trust, Heath Road, Suffolk, IP4 5PD, UK.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yung
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009017:Morbidity / Q000639:trends; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D000072220:Otolaryngologists / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010036:Otolaryngology; D015995:Prevalence; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: ENT surgeons; Ill-health; Occupational hazards; Otolaryngologists; Work-related illness