School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Apr 11;20(8):5459. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20085459.
Participatory research, including self-assessment of exposure (SAE), can engage study participants and reduce costs. The objective of this study was to investigate the feasibility and reliability of a SAE regime among nail technicians. The study was nested in a larger study, which included exposure assessment supervised by experts, i.e., controlled assessment of exposure (CAE). In the SAE approach, ten formal and ten informal nail technicians were verbally instructed to use a passive sampler and complete an activity sheet. Each participant conducted measurements on three consecutive days, whereafter the expert collected the passive samplers. Sixty samples were, thus, analyzed for twenty-one volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The reported concentrations of 11 VOCs were converted into total VOC (TVOC) concentrations, adjusted for their respective emission rates (adj TVOC) to allow comparison within and between nail technician categories (formal vs informal), as well as assessment regimes (SAE versus CAE), using the data from the main study. In total, 57 SAE and 58 CAE results were compared, using a linear mixed-effects model. There were variations in individual VOC concentrations, especially for the informal sector participants. The major contributors to the adj TVOC concentrations were acetone and 2-propanol for the formal category, whereas ethyl- and methyl methacrylate contributed most to the informal nail technicians' total exposures. No significant differences in adj TVOC-concentrations were observed between the assessment regimes, but significantly higher exposures were recorded in the formal technicians. The results show that the SAE approach is feasible in the informal service sector and can extend an exposure dataset to enable reliable estimates for scenarios with substantial exposure variations.
参与式研究，包括自我暴露评估（SAE），可以让研究参与者参与其中并降低成本。本研究的目的是调查指甲技术人员中 SAE 制度的可行性和可靠性。该研究嵌套在一项更大的研究中，该研究包括专家监督的暴露评估，即，暴露的控制评估（CAE）。在 SAE 方法中，十名正式和十名非正式指甲技师被口头指示使用被动采样器并填写活动表。每个参与者连续三天进行测量，然后专家收集被动采样器。因此，分析了 60 个样本中的 21 种挥发性有机化合物（VOC）。报告的 11 种 VOC 浓度被转换为总 VOC（TVOC）浓度，根据各自的排放率进行调整（adj TVOC），以允许在正式和非正式指甲技师类别（正式与非正式）之间以及在评估制度（SAE 与 CAE）之间进行比较，使用来自主要研究的数据。总共比较了 57 个 SAE 和 58 个 CAE 结果，使用线性混合效应模型。个别 VOC 浓度存在差异，特别是非正式部门参与者。adj TVOC 浓度的主要贡献者是正式类别中的丙酮和 2-丙醇，而乙基和甲基丙烯酸甲酯对非正式指甲技师的总暴露贡献最大。两种评估制度之间没有观察到 adj TVOC 浓度的显著差异，但正式技师的暴露量明显更高。结果表明，SAE 方法在非正式服务部门是可行的，可以扩展暴露数据集，以便对暴露变化较大的情况进行可靠估计。
