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Do hairdressers in Denmark have their hand eczema reported as an occupational disease? Results from a register‐based questionnaire study
Author(s) -
Lysdal Susan H.,
Søsted Heidi,
Johansen Jeanne D.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
contact dermatitis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1600-0536
pISSN - 0105-1873
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0536.2011.01997.x
Subject(s) - hand eczema , medicine , register (sociolinguistics) , occupational exposure , occupational disease , occupational medicine , dermatology , family medicine , disease , allergy , contact dermatitis , environmental health , immunology , linguistics , philosophy
Background. Occupational hand eczema is common in hairdressers, owing to wet work and chemicals. Objectives. To estimate whether hairdressers in Denmark have their hand eczema reported as an occupational disease and to clarify the reasons for not reporting. Methods. A register‐based study was performed, comprising trained hairdressers (n = 7840), using a self‐administered postal questionnaire including questions on hand eczema and it being reported as an occupational disease. A response rate of 67.9% (n = 5324) was obtained. Results. Overall, 2186 respondents ever had hand eczema; 71.3% were apprentices at the time of hand eczema onset. The majority (61.9%) had had hand eczema several times and 21.3% (almost) all of the time, but only 20.7% had reported their hand eczema as being occupational to the National Board of Industrial Injuries (Denmark). A positive association between severity of hand eczema and filing a report was found (odds ratio 19.2; 95% confidence interval 8.18–45.06). The main reasons for not reporting were ‘I thought it would eventually get better’ (40.4%) and ‘My doctor didn't tell me it was possible to report it' (26.6%). Conclusions. Hand eczema is considerably under‐reported as an occupational disease; the perception of hand eczema among hairdressers and the lack of reporting from doctors are the main reasons for this.