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Workplace
Short report
How to improve the assessment of the impact of occupational diseases at a national level? The Netherlands as an example
  1. Henk F van der Molen,
  2. Carel TJ Hulshof,
  3. P Paul FM Kuijer
  1. Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Department: Coronel Institute of Occupational Health, Netherlands Center for Occupational Diseases, Amsterdam Public Health research institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  1. Correspondence to Dr Henk F van der Molen, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Department: Coronel Institute of Occupational Health, Netherlands Center for Occupational Diseases, Amsterdam Public Health research institute, Amsterdam 1100 DD, The Netherlands; h.f.vandermolen{at}amc.nl

Abstract

Objective To explore the impact of occupational diseases (ODs) through estimations of population attributable fractions (PAFs) in a national context.

Methods PAFs were calculated for eight prevalent ODs using existing data on the prevalence of exposure to risk factors at work and the strength of their association with diseases based on systematic reviews. Six systematic reviews with meta-analyses and two overview papers were selected. All addressed the relationship between occupational exposure to work-related risk factors for these eight prevalent ODs. Prevalence figures for exposure to work-related risk factors were retrieved from the Dutch National Working Conditions Survey (NWCS) based on self-reports by approximately 40 000 workers. The specific risk factors retrieved from the reviews were matched with the available and dichotomised self-reported exposure items from the NWCS by two authors.

Results The eight frequently reported ODs among the Dutch working population revealed PAFs varying between 3% and 25%. Lateral epicondylitis and distress/burnout had the highest attributable fractions, with percentages of 25% and 18%, respectively. For knee osteoarthritis (13%), shoulder soft tissue disorders (10%) and non-specific low back pain (10%) approximately 1 in 10 cases were attributable to work. PAFs for irritant contact dermatitis, noise-induced hearing loss and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were 15%, 6% and 3%, respectively.

Conclusion Data from systematic reviews and self-reported data on exposure provide opportunities to estimate the impact of ODs. For the Netherlands, they revealed substantial and varying attributions of work for prevalent diseases.

  • epidemiology
  • occupational disease
  • preventive medicine

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2018-105387

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors HFvdM: conceived and designed this short report, interpreted the data, and drafted this short report. All authors were involved in the conception of this study, made critical revisions and approved the final manuscript.

    • Funding This work was supported by the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, grant number 22085.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Correction notice This article has been amended since it first published. It has been made open access.