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Certification of occupational diseases as common diseases in a primary health care setting
Author(s) -
Benavides Fernando G.,
Castejón Jordi,
Gimeno David,
Porta Miquel,
Mestres Jordi,
Simonet Pere
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/ajim.20128
Subject(s) - medicine , primary care , occupational medicine , certification , family medicine , primary health care , environmental health , occupational exposure , population , political science , law
Background It is often difficult to discern whether a disease is an occupational or common disease, especially in a primary care setting. Methods From a randomly selected sample of 322 workers attending a Primary Health Care Center, 207 workers (response rate of 64.3%) agreed to participate. An occupational questionnaire was administered. General practitioners provided medical records for each worker. Medical records and occupational questionnaires were independently reviewed by three professionals. They assessed whether a relationship between disease and working conditions was probable or improbable. Results Thirty‐three of the 207 cases (15.9%) were considered probably related to working conditions according to the expert's opinion. The most frequent were musculoskeletal diseases (20 cases). Of the 207 workers, 74 (35.7%) judged that their diseases could be related to their working conditions. Conclusions A significant proportion of diseases attended in primary care setting was not recognized as occupational, and they were hence not reflected in official statistics. Am. J. Ind. Med. 47:176–180, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.