Preemployment multiphasic screening in an urban manpower training program.

Preemployment health examinations have long occupied a central role in industrial medicine, providing company physicians with baseline health status and physical limitations for each employee. We evaluated a similar multiphasic screening examination in 662 young, minority applicants to an urban manpower training program. Resulting from this screening was a substantial number of patients with positive serology (1%), positive gonorrhea cultures (3%), excessive daily ethanol ingestion associated with liver enlargement (13%), decreased visual acuity (24%) and dental caries (23%). These findings are markedly different than those reported for preemployment screening in industry, suggesting the need for a specific health screening protocol for applicants to manpower training programs.