Chest
Clinical Investigations: Irways: ArticlesA Workers’ Compensation Claim Population for Occupational Asthma: Comparison of Subgroups
Section snippets
Material and Methods
Claims submitted for OA since mid-1984 to the Ontario WCB have been given a decision of (1) OA, (2) aggravation of asthma (c) unrelated asthma, or (d) other decision. The term aggravation of asthma (AA) was generally applied by the WCB to asthma that occurred at work, either with a history of preceding asthma or, in those with no known previous asthma, in the absence of a specific sensitizer. This included increased airway reactivity apparently triggered by irritant factors in subjects with no
Total Group
A total of 609 files was reviewed from the 4-year period. A diagnosis/decision of OA was reached in about one third of subjects both by the physician (35%) and the WCB (39%). A similar proportion (39%) was given a decision by the WCB of AA, and a diagnosis of this by the main assessing physician (34%). Of those with a WCB decision of AA, 68% had a history of preceding asthma. Unrelated asthma was diagnosed in 6% of the total group by the physician and 10% were given this decision by the WCB
Discussion
This survey reflects the claims received by the Ontario WCB for suspected work-related asthma, and may not necessarily reflect the true Ontario incidence or distribution of causative agents in the time period assessed, since many patients with OA may not be reported to the WCB or be eligible to submit a claim. Our categorization of patients into diagnostic groups has been on the basis of the WCB decision, stemming largely from the main physician assessment.
We recognize that the WCB decision may
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to thank Mary Harpur and Justina Greene for data gathering and processing, and Dr. C. Smith and Dr. P. Carr of the Ontario Workers’ Compensation Board for their cooperation in this study as well as Kerrie Cheung for typing assistance.
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This study was supported by the Ontario Workers’ Compensation Board.