Ministry of Health, Social Policy, and Equality, Madrid, Spain.
Am J Ind Med. 2013 Mar;56(3):326-34. doi: 10.1002/ajim.22158. Epub 2013 Jan 8.
Spain, and some of its regions in particular, report higher rates of occupational diseases than many other countries in Europe. We describe the distribution and temporal trend of compensated occupational diseases among the working population of the Basque Country, a heavy industrialized Spanish region, from 1990 to 2008.
Employment data and occupational disease data were obtained from the Spanish Institute of Statistics and the Basque and Spanish Social Security Departments, respectively. Annual incidence of occupational diseases and temporal trends were computed.
Occupational diseases (33,547) were reported among workers in the Basque Country between 1990 and 2008. The occupational disease incidence increased sixfold during the study period, mainly due to less severe cases. The most frequent occupational diseases were caused by physical agents (85%), principally musculoskeletal disorders. The occupational disease incidence in Basque Country was two to six times higher than in most other regions of Spain and Europe.
The rise in compensated occupational illnesses in the Basque Country is likely due to a mixture of better recognition of such illnesses and changes in laws, regulations, and administrative procedures. Chronic occupational diseases such as cancer and chronic respiratory diseases, however, remain under-reported, and care for people with such illnesses represents an undue financial burden on the public health care system and on their families.
西班牙及其部分地区的职业病报告率高于欧洲许多其他国家。我们描述了 1990 年至 2008 年期间巴斯克地区（西班牙一个重工业化地区）劳动人口中职业病的分布和时间趋势。
就业数据和职业病数据分别来自西班牙统计局和巴斯克和西班牙社会保障部门。计算了职业病的年发病率和时间趋势。
1990 年至 2008 年期间，巴斯克地区有 33547 名工人报告患有职业病。在研究期间，职业病的发病率增加了六倍，主要是由于较不严重的病例。最常见的职业病是由物理因素引起的（85%），主要是肌肉骨骼疾病。巴斯克地区的职业病发病率是西班牙和欧洲大多数其他地区的两到六倍。
巴斯克地区职业病补偿的增加可能是由于对这类疾病的更好认识以及法律、法规和行政程序的变化所致。然而，慢性职业病如癌症和慢性呼吸道疾病仍未得到充分报告，这些疾病患者的护理给公共卫生保健系统及其家庭带来了不应有的财政负担。
