MedWire News: The short-term prognosis for patients with occupational asthma (OA) is poor, say Finnish researchers who found that around half of patients with the respiratory condition were not at work 6 months after diagnosis.
“Causative agents of occupational asthma (OA) are well described in literature but far less is known about factors affecting the outcome of OA,” explain Paula Kauppi (Skin and Allergy Hospital, Helsinki) and team.
To investigate the short-term outcome of OA, the researchers studied data on 47 Caucasian patients (43% men), aged an average of 46 years, who were diagnosed with the disease in 2003. The majority (68%) of the patients were blue-collar workers.
The patients’ employment status was assessed 6 months after diagnosis and potential predictors of unemployment at this time were evaluated.
In total, 23 (49%) patients were not working at follow up. Of those not at work, four (17%) had retired, 12 (52%) were on sick leave, five (22%) were in retraining for a new occupation, and two (9%) were unemployed.
The researchers found that there were no significant differences in lung function between patients who were working at follow-up and those who were not.
The team also found that although the presence of atopy – the only significant prognostic factor – was associated with diminished lung function (odds ratio [OR]=5.0), it was also inversely associated with work discontinuation at follow-up (OR=0.18).
Work continuation at follow-up was also not predicted by gender, age, occupation, smoking habits, causative agent, or duration of symptoms before diagnosis.
Kauppi and team conclude in the Clinical Respiratory Journal: “The short-time socioeconomic prognosis of OA was poor, since half of the patients were not at work at the 6-month follow-up.”
They add: “Atopy predicted abnormal lung function results, but in contrast to this, atopy was inversely associated with unemployment or work discontinuation.”
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