The issues related to the accuracy and comparability of this type of assessment of occurrence of occupational asthma include questions on How to define occupational asthma?
Table 4 provides a summary of the methods to assess occurrence of occupational asthma and excess public health burden from occupational or work-related asthma, highlighting their advantages and limitations, and recommending applications.
The final step in assessing occurrence of occupational asthma based on estimating population attributable fraction due to specific occupational exposure(s) is calculating Excess burden of disease (EBD).
Estimation of the occurrence of occupational asthma can be based on the assessment of occurrence of occupational asthma per se when the denominator is known, or based on the assessment of occurrence of adult-onset asthma combined with the assessment of population attributable fraction from specific occupational exposures.
Theoretically, two epidemiologic approaches can be used to assess the occurrence of occupational asthma in a given population: 1. Assessment of the occurrence of occupational asthma per se. 2. Assessment of adult-onset asthma and the attributable fractions and population attributable fractions due to specific occupational exposures.
Assessment of the occurrence of occupational asthma per se can be used in countries with good coverage of the identification system for occupational asthma, i.e. countries with well-functioning occupational health services.
A number of epidemiological studies have examined the possible association between paternal occupation and the occurrence of neuroblastoma in offspring, some examined paternal occupational exposures which are comparable to the 32 groups examined in our study (see Table 1).
Summaries of the occurrence of occupational cold injuries have been previously reported (4, 14, 21).
Indeed, recent case control studies found an association between FLG mutations and the occurrence of occupational HE 31– 31.
HCWs' fears were sustained by the continuing occurrence of occupational transmission after the introduction of barrier-nursing.
For individual exposures, effect modification by atopy or smoking has been reported on the occurrence of occupational airway disease.
