Department of Community Health Sciences, Aga Khan University, Karachi 74800, Pakistan.
BMC Public Health. 2012 Nov 20;12:999. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-12-999.
Occupational risk factors are one of the major causes of respiratory illnesses and symptoms, and account for 13% of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 11% of asthma worldwide. Majority of brick kilns in Pakistan use wood and coal for baking the bricks which makes the brick kiln workers susceptible to high exposure of air pollution. This study was designed to describe frequency of chronic respiratory symptoms and illnesses and study the association between these symptoms and different types of work.
This was a questionnaire based cross sectional survey conducted among the brick kiln workers in Larkana and Dadu districts, Sindh, Pakistan. A total of 340 adult men were assessed using translated version of the American Thoracic Society Division of Lung Disease (ATS-DLD) questionnaire. Logistic regression analysis was done to determine the relationship between various socio-demographic and occupational factors (age, education, type of work, number of years at work, smoking status), and the respiratory symptoms and illnesses (chronic cough, chronic phlegm, wheeze, Chronic Bronchitis and asthma).
Results of the study show that 22.4% workers had chronic cough while 21.2% reported chronic phlegm. 13.8% had two or more attacks of shortness of breath with wheezing. 17.1% workers were suffering from Chronic Bronchitis while 8.2% reported physician diagnosed asthma. Amongst the non-smoking workers 8.9% had Chronic Bronchitis. Multivariate analysis found that workers involved in brick baking were more likely to have Chronic Bronchitis (OR= 3.7, 95% CI 1.1-11.6, p=<0.05) and asthma (OR= 3.9, 95% CI 1.01-15.5, p=<0.05) compared to those involved in carriage and placement work.
A high frequency of respiratory symptoms and illnesses was observed among brick kiln workers. Age, nature of work and smoking were strong predictors of developing these symptoms and illnesses.
职业危险因素是导致呼吸道疾病和症状的主要原因之一，占全球慢性阻塞性肺疾病的 13%和哮喘的 11%。巴基斯坦的大多数砖窑都使用木材和煤炭来烘烤砖块，这使得砖窑工人容易受到高度空气污染的影响。本研究旨在描述慢性呼吸道症状和疾病的发生频率，并研究这些症状与不同类型工作之间的关系。
这是一项在巴基斯坦信德省拉尔卡纳和达都地区进行的基于问卷的横断面调查。共有 340 名成年男性接受了美国胸科学会（ATS）肺部疾病分部（Division of Lung Disease，DLD）问卷的翻译版本评估。使用逻辑回归分析来确定各种社会人口统计学和职业因素（年龄、教育程度、工作类型、工作年限、吸烟状况）与呼吸道症状和疾病（慢性咳嗽、慢性咳痰、喘息、慢性支气管炎和哮喘）之间的关系。
研究结果表明，22.4%的工人有慢性咳嗽，21.2%报告有慢性咳痰。13.8%的人有两次或两次以上伴有喘息的呼吸急促发作。17.1%的工人患有慢性支气管炎，8.2%的工人报告有医生诊断的哮喘。在不吸烟的工人中，有 8.9%患有慢性支气管炎。多变量分析发现，从事砖窑烘焙工作的工人更容易患慢性支气管炎（OR=3.7，95%CI 1.1-11.6，p<0.05）和哮喘（OR=3.9，95%CI 1.01-15.5，p<0.05）与从事运输和安置工作的工人相比。
砖窑工人中观察到呼吸道症状和疾病的高发频率。年龄、工作性质和吸烟是出现这些症状和疾病的强有力预测因素。
