Introduction Hairdressing apprentices are at high risk of developing occupational contact dermatitis.

Materials and methods Data on skin health are presented for 352 hairdressing apprentices attending vocational schools in 24 Croatian towns at the beginning of their education, in a screening phase of a prospective cohort study. Apprentices were recruited from September to December 2017. The study protocol included: Nordic Occupational Skin Questionnaire and International Study on Asthma and Allergy in Children Questionnaire for the evaluation of self-reported skin and atopy symptoms, clinical skin examination interpreted by means of Osnabrueck Hand Eczema Severity Index (OHSI), genotyping filaggrin (FLG) gene polymorphisms 2282del4 and R501X from buccal swabs, skin pH and transepidermal water loss (TEWL) measurements.

Results In the total sample (n=352, median age 15, 18 males), a history of respiratory and/or skin atopy symptoms was reported by 44.89%, hand/wrist eczema by 11.93%, and a history of dry hands (without eczema) by 34.38% of apprentices. One or more hand/wrist skin changes were found at the clinical examination in 18.18% of apprentices, with the OHSI score ranging from 1 to 6. Washing hands>20 times per day was identified in 12.78% of apprentices. An FLG gene mutation (R501X) was found in only one apprentice. The median (range) for hand TEWL and pH was 13.1 (4.36–62.69) and 5.68 (4.28–7.13), respectively. OHSI score was positively correlated with hand TEWL (Spearman rho 0.16; p=0.0026), and pH (Spearman rho 0.13; p=0.0186).

Conclusion The results indicate a high prevalence of self-reported atopy (45%) and moderate prevalence of self-reported (12%) and clinically observed skin symptoms (18%) on the hands/wrists of hairdressing apprentices already at the beginning of education, without FLG mutations as a risk factors. This emphasizes the need to ameliorate preventive examinations of children before enrolling to schools for professions with high risk of exposure to skin hazards.