Characteristics and career length of graduates with or without occupational hand eczema (OHE)
| Never had OHE | Frequency of OHE | *Adjusted OR (95% CI) | |||
| Once | Several times | Almost all the time | ‘Almost all the time’ vs ‘once’ | ||
| Proportion % (n/ntotal) | 59.3 (1544/2602) | 6.7 (175/2602) | 24.3 (633/2602) | 9.6 (250/2602) | |
| Female % (n/ntotal) | 95.3 (1472/1544) | 96.0 (168/175) | 98.1 (621/633) | 98.0 (245/250) | 1.4 (0.4 to 5.2), p=0.60 |
| Age % (n/ntotal) | |||||
| 31–40 | 8.7 (134/1544) | 16.0 (28/175) | 13.7 (87/633) | 12.4 (31/250) | 1.0 (reference) |
| 41–50 | 46.4 (717/1544) | 44.6 (78/175) | 50.6 (320/633) | 53.2 (133/250) | 1.4 (0.7 to 2.9), p=0.27 |
| 51–60 | 43.6 (673/1544) | 37.7 (66/175) | 35.4 (224/633) | 34.4 (86/250) | 0.9 (0.5 to 1.9), p=0.85 |
| >60 | 1.3 (20/1544) | 1.7 (3/175) | 0.3 (2/633) | NA | NA |
| History of atopic dermatitis % (n/ntotal) | 2.8 (42/1506) | 5.2 (9/174) | 8.4 (53/629) | 20.0 (50/250) | 4.4 (1.9 to 10.1), p<0.001 |
| Patch test % (n/ntotal) | |||||
| Never been patch tested | 78.0 (1202/1542) | 66.9 (117/175) | 58.9 (373/633) | 24.8 (62/250) | 1.0 (reference) |
| Patch test negative | 10.1 (156/1542) | 11.4 (20/175) | 10.6 (67/633) | 10.8 (27/250) | 2.4 (1.2 to 4.7), p=0.01 |
| Patch test positive | 11.9 (184/1542) | 21.7 (38/175) | 30.5 (193/633) | 64.4 (161/250) | 3.8 (1.4 to 10.4), p=0.01 |
| Allergy % (n/ntotal) | |||||
| Hair dyes | 1.1 (17/1542) | 4.0 (7/174) | 6.3 (40/633) | 27.6 (69/250) | 4.0 (1.5 to 10.5), p=0.005 |
| Perfume | 2.3 (36/1542) | 5.2 (9/174) | 6.3 (40/633) | 13.2 (33/250) | 0.5 (0.2 to 1.4), p=0.19 |
| Preservatives | 1.2 (19/1542) | 2.3 (4/175) | 4.3 (27/633) | 12.4 (31/250) | 1.7 (0.5 to 5.6), p=0.36 |
| Nickel | 6.9 (106/1542) | 10.3 (18/175) | 16.7 (106/633) | 36.0 (90/250) | 1.7 (0.7 to 4.1), p=0.23 |
| Other | 6.1 (94/1542) | 11.4 (20/175) | 13.1 (83/633) | 29.2 (73/250) | 1.0 (0.4 to 2.4), p=0.98 |
| Median career length (years; (95% CI) | 14.0 (12.6 to 15.4) | 20.0 (14.6 to 25.4) | 12.0 (10.7 to 13.3) | 7.0 (5.6 to 8.4) | Not included in model |
| Ex-hairdressers % (n/ntotal) | 54.1 (835/1544) | 46.3 (81/175) | 61.8 (391/633) | 74.0 (185/250) | Not included in model |
| Left the trade (partly) because of hand eczema % (n/ntotal) | NA | 15.4 (10/65) | 40.7 (142/349) | 86.5 (154/178) | Not included in model |
Bold font indicates p<0.05.
*Factors associated with having hand eczema ‘almost all the time’ were assessed by a logistic regression model (n=425) with the outcome of the frequency of hand eczema (almost all the time/once).
NA, not applicable.