Occupational Disease Monitoring Research Articles

The application of metaverse in occupational health.

The metaverse, as a new digital interactive platform, is garnering significant attention and exploration across industries due to technological advancements and societal digital transformation. In occupational health, there is immense potential for leveraging the metaverse to enhance work environments and occupational health management. It offers companies more efficient and intelligent solutions for occupational health management while providing employees with safer and more comfortable work environments. A comprehensive literature search was conducted using PubMed, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, and Google Scholar databases to identify relevant studies published between January 2015 and March 2024. The search terms included "metaverse," "virtual reality," "occupational health," "workplace safety," "job training," and "telemedicine." The selected articles were analyzed, and key findings were summarized narratively. The review summarizes the broad application prospects of metaverse technology in immersive training, occupational risk identification and assessment, and occupational disease monitoring and diagnosis. However, applying the metaverse in occupational health also faces challenges such as inadequate technical standards, data privacy issues, human health hazards, high costs, personnel training, and lagging regulations. Metaverse offers new possibilities for addressing the numerous challenges faced in occupational health and has broad application prospects. In the future, collaborative efforts from multiple stakeholders will be necessary to promote the sustainable development of metaverse technology in occupational health and better protect workers' occupational health.

A summary on surveillance system of occupational disease under the framework of National Health Insurance Informatization Project

The surveillance of occupational disease has entered a new stage ofdevelopment, with the implementation of the national health informatization project. To improve the efficiency and quality of occupational disease monitoring information reporting in this paper, the system architecture and related management regulations, as long as the major changes and achievement of "surveillance system of occupational disease and health hazards information" under the framework of National Health Insurance Informatization Project were elaborated. The deficiencies existing in the system were analyzed, and expectation for the construction of the occupational disease surveillance system was addressed.

Workers' Occupational Dust Exposure and Pulmonary Function Assessment: Cross-Sectional Study in China.

Objective: This study aims to determine the occupational health status of workers exposed to dust and the risk factors of lung function decline, to provide a basis for formulating corresponding occupational disease-prevention strategies. Methods: Data on 2045 workers exposed to dust, including their age, gender, exposure time, chest X-ray test results, and pulmonary function test results, were obtained from a key occupational disease monitoring project in Chongqing, China, in 2021. Chi-square tests and multifactorial logistic regression, and other methods, were used for statistical analysis. Results: The prevalence of pneumoconiosis-like changes was 0.83% (17/2045), and the prevalence of abnormal forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), and FEV1/FVC was 4.25% (87/2045), 12.81% (262/2045), and 1.47% (30/2045), respectively. With increasing worker’s age, the prevalence of abnormal pneumoconiosis-like changes (p = 0.0065), FEV1 (p = 0.0002), FVC (p < 0.0001), and FEV1/FVC (p = 0.0055) all increased. Factors such as age, exposure duration, enterprise size, and dust exposure concentration were associated with abnormal lung function. Conclusions: Workers exposed to occupational dust have a high rate of abnormal lung function. The government, enterprises, and individuals should pay attention to occupational dust exposure, and various effective measures should be actively taken to protect the life and health of workers.

Comparison of network report and actual detection of suspected occupational diseases among lead exposed workers in Jiangsu Province from 2016 to 2018

Objective: To analyze and compare the detection level and actual detection of suspected occupational diseases of lead exposed workers in the network report of occupational disease and occupational health information monitoring system, so as to provide a basis for formulating and improving relevant laws and regulations on occupational disease monitoring in the future. Methods: From January 2016 to December 2018, the network report occupational health examination data of lead exposed workers in Jiangsu Province were selected, the network report detection rate of suspected occupational diseases of lead exposed workers was counted and compared with the actual detection rate judged in the early stage, and the distribution characteristics of the network report detection rate of different years, regions and occupational health examination institutions and the reasons for the difference with the actual detection rate were analyzed. Results: Network report detection rate of suspected occupational disease in Jiangsu Province from 2016 to 2018 (0.042%, 30/71810) was significantly lower than the actual detection rate of 1.12% (805/71810) , and the difference was statistically significant (χ(2)=723.518, P<0.01) . The network report detection rates of suspected occupational chronic lead poisoning showed an increasing trend year by year, and the difference were statistically significant (χ(2)(trend)=7.627, P<0.01) . All the 30 network report cases were male, and 28 cases (93.33%) were from small and medium-sized enterprises. Among the 805 cases of suspected occupational chronic lead poisoning, 689 cases (85.59%) came from small and medium-sized enterprises. The three cities with more cases were Huai'an 222 cases (27.58%) , Suzhou 208 cases (25.84%) and Changzhou 138 cases (17.14%) . Compared with the actual detection, the number of network reports in Yangzhou accounted for 85.29% (29/34) of the actual detection from 2016 to 2018, that in Suqian accounted for 10.00% (1/10) , and that in other prefecture level cities was 0. From 2016 to 2018, 46.22% (33191/71810) of the occupational health examinations of lead exposed workers were undertaken by Centers for Disease Control and prevention at all levels (referred to as "CDC") . The 30 suspected cases of occupational chronic lead poisoning reported network came from CDC, accounting for 4.89% (30/614) of the actual detection, and the rest were 0. Conclusion: There are great differences between the network report and the actual detection rate of suspected occupational chronic lead poisoning among lead exposed workers, mainly due to the differences in the judgment level of suspected occupational diseases in different regions, the nature of institutions and the level of professional technicians.

High frequency hearing loss detection rate in occupational noise exposed workers in China: a Meta-analysis

Objective: A Meta-analysis was used to evaluate the high frequency hearing loss detection rate, its area and time distributions in occupational noise exposed workers in China to provide evidence for the prevention and control of occupational noise-induced deafness. Methods: From February to April 2020, the number of hearing tests and the number of binaural high frequency average hearing threshold ≥40 dB of workers exposed to noise in key occupational disease monitoring and occupational health risk assessment project in China was collected from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) , VIP database and PubMed database. The retrieval time was set from the establishment of the database to February 28, 2020. The R 3.6.2 software was used to calculate the pooled high frequency hearing loss detection rate. Results: A total of 28 studies, included 34 data and 1259571 occupational noise exposed workers, were enrolled. The articles covered 16 provinces in 2015-2018. The pooled high frequency hearing loss detection rate in occupational noise exposed workers was 9.45% (95%CI: 7.64%-11.64%) . The high frequency hearing loss detection rate (10.54%) was higher in 2018 than other years (2017: 10.17%, 2016: 9.21%, 2015: 7.88%) . The high frequency hearing loss detection rate (12.23%) was higher in central China than in eastern (10.21%) , western (7.91%) and north-eastern (5.21%) China. Conclusion: The overall high frequency hearing loss detection rate in occupational noise exposed workers is generally high in China. It is important to strengthen the hearing protection in occupational noise exposed workers to facilitate the occupational noise-induced deafness prevention and control in China.

Research progress of occupational disease assessment and application on burden of disease

Burden of disease (BOD) refers to the pressure on the entire social economy and health caused by disease, disability and premature death, and the resulting economic and social impacts. It includes epidemiological burden and economic burden. BOD is widely used in the analysis and research of various chronic diseases, infectious diseases and cancers. With the rapid development of economy and industrialization, the health effects of occupational diseases on workers and the resulting disease burden have become a major public health and social problem, which has caused widespread concern. However, in the field of occupational disease burden research, domestic and foreign scholars have little research on it, and lack of systematic research and framework construction. Therefore, this paper is intended to summarize the occupational disease assessment and applied research of BOD, in order to provide data support for occupational disease monitoring, health promotion and optimal allocation of health resources, and to provide theoretical basis and reference basis for the reform of occupational health work and the formulation of health policies.

Three-year' experience of a tertiary level occupational diseases clinic.

We aimed to evaluate the diagnosis of patients who applied on the first three years of our clinic, in order to contribute to the state of occupational diseases (OD) in Turkey. The study is a cross-sectional study, between November 2013 and December 2016, 862 subjects were accepted for the evaluation. Gender, age, application ways, the reason of referral, workplace, exposure time and possible risks for the patients were evaluated through a file examination. Total of 708 (82.1%) was male and 154 (17.9%) were female. The mean age of the subjects was 38.3 ± 7.7 years; the mean term of employment was 126.6 ± 87.3 (1-420) months. The most common cause of referral was the suspicion of occupational pulmonary diseases (64.3%) with 554 workers. 435 workers (50,6%) were diagnosed to have an OD, 78 workers (9.0%) were diagnosed with work-related diseases. The most common diagnoses of OD; 169 (38.9%) pneumoconiosis, 71 (16.3%) occupational asthma, 38 (8.7%) cervical disc hernia, 24 (5.5%) lumbar disc hernia, 24 (5.5%) hearing loss, 19 (4.3%) cubital/carpal tunnel, and 15 (3.4%) workers have lead intoxication. Dust, chemicals, ergonomic risks and noise still remain as important occupational health risks in Turkey. It is seen that the existing occupational diseases monitoring system is inadequate to identify and manage the health problems of the workers. An effective and comprehensive occupational disease monitoring system should be established and legal regulations should be planned.

Analysis of silicosis surveillance data in Tianjin in 2017

Objective: Analyzes of the monitoring results of silicosis in key occupational disease monitoring in Tianjin in 2017, providing reference for continuous monitoring, and prevention and control work of silicosis. Methods: Monitor and analyze the current state of silica dust hazard enterprises, the health status of silica dust workers, and the characteristics of newly developed silicosis cases in accordance with the national 2017 work plan for key occupational disease monitoring and occupational health risk assessment. Results: In 2017, 210 enterprises have silica dust hazard in Tianjin, silica dust workplaces exceed the standard rate is 34.73%, 5 695 workers' health examination who contact with silica dust were collected. 2 were detected occupational contraindication, the abnormal detection rate of chest examination is 3.60%, the abnormal index of lung function mainly is FVC, the abnormal rate is 15.8%. The abnormal rate increases with working years. In 2017, 193 new cases of silicosis were reported most cases were developed after years of decontamination. Most enterprises with cases had already out of market, only 7 were still producing. Conclusion: The key prevention and control in Tianjin was enterprises with silica dust excess of standard, as well as older and longer working years workers, adopting effective measures to reduce the concentration of silica dust in workplace is a fundamental measure to reduce the risk of silicosis.

Effects of occupational exposure to dust on chest radiograph, pulmonary function, blood pressure and electrocardiogram among coal miners in an eastern province, China

BackgroundCoal dust is one of the most serious risk factor that leads to respiratory diseases and cardiovascular diseases in miners. This study aimed to observe the effects of occupational dust exposure on chest radiograph, pulmonary function (PF), blood pressure (BP) and electrocardiogram (ECG) indexes in coal miners and explore the related risk factors.MethodsIn the Chinese Occupational Disease Monitoring and Occupational Health Risk Assessment Program, a total of 11,061 subjects in 2015 and 12,597 subjects in 2016 were recruited in this study. The chest radiograph, PF, BP and ECG of coal miners were surveyed using radiograph machine, spirometer, sphygmomanometer and electrocardiograph, respectively.ResultsThe prevalence of aberrant BP was the highest in coal miners, followed by abnormal ECG, PF and radiograph. Significant differences in abnormal BP, ECG, PF and radiograph of coal miners were closely associated with age, years of dust exposure, smoking, drinking, working types and size of mines. A total of 80 persons diagnosed with coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP) in 2015–2016, which occupied 0.34% of the coal miners.ConclusionAbnormal BP, ECG, PF and radiograph of coal miners are highlighted health problems in China and require serious attention. Feasible health promotion and protective facilities should be adopted to guarantee coal miners’ health.

A study on the status and problem countermeasures of key occupational disease monitoring in Shandong, China, from 2015 to 2017

Objective: To analyze the completion status, monitoring results, and existing problems of key occupational disease monitoring in Shandong, China, from 2015 to 2017, and to provide reference materials for improving monitoring quality and carrying out occupational disease prevention and control. Methods: The monitoring situation including project coverage, data collection, monitoring results, and monitoring quality of key occupational diseases in Shandong from 2015 to 2017 were described and comparatively analyzed. Results: In the past three years, the uncoverage rate of monitored counties (38.69% in 2015, 10.95% in 2016, and 5.11% in 2017) , the non-work rate of occupational health examination institutions (41.67% in 2015, 18.02% in 2016, and 8.72% in 2017) , and the non-work rate of occupational disease diagnosis institutions (42.31% in 2015, 38.46% in 2016, and 38.46% in 2017) in Shandong decreased year by year. The number of institutions with key occupational hazard factors reported to the safety supervision and management department increased year by year (it was 24140 in 2017, with an increase of 40.50% compared with 2016 and an increase of 114.62% compared with 2015) ; the key occupational hazard factors in enterprises were mainly noise (72.76%) , followed by benzene, silica dust, and coal dust. The number of workers exposed to key occupational hazard factors reported to the safety supervision and management department increased year by year; in 2017, it was 729245, with an increase of 39.78% compared with 2016 and an increase of 84.81% compared with 2015. The ratio of people exposed to key occupational hazard factors identified by the medical examination to the total people in the safety supervision system in a year decreased year by year (40.87% in 2015, 23.86% in 2016, and 17.95% in 2017) . Conclusion: In Shandong, the supervision of enterprises with key occupational hazard factors and the responsibility of enterprise protection should be strengthened. The occupational health examination rate of workers should be improved. It is suggested that we should carry out the special investigations and occupational health risk assessment for key enterprises and key populations.

A cost-benefit analysis of occupational disease reporting in China

Objective: To perform a cost-benefit analysis of the occupational disease reporting system in China, and to provide a basis for effective resource allocation. Methods: The data on the cost of occupational diseases were collected from China Health Statistics Yearbook 2013, the estimated benefit data were collected from published articles in China and foreign countries, and the probability data were collected from the occupational diseasereports published by health and family planning administrative departments. Adecision-making tree was used for the cost-benefit analysis. Results: The estimated cost of occupational disease reporting was about 102.47 million yuan/year, consisting of a cost of reporting in national medical institutions of 1.25 million yuan/year, a management cost of 30.35 million yuan/year, a management cost in local public health institutions of 69.80 million yuan/year, a management cost in national public health institutions of 370 thousand yuan/year, and a cost of construction and maintenance of reporting system of 700 thousand yuan/year. The results of the decision tree analysis showed that when an occupational disease monitoring system was established, the incremental input for occupational disease monitoring and prevention/control was 2.1 billion yuan/year, the output was 6.5 billion yuan/year, and the benefit of occupational disease reporting system was 4.4 billion yuan/year. Conclusion: The benefit of occupational disease reporting system depends on the cost-benefit of occupational disease prevention and control measures, and proper prevention and control measures are extremely important for improving the benefit of occupational disease reporting system.

Focus on occupational disease monitoring results analysis of Bao'an district, Shenzhen in 2011 to 2012

目的 开展宝安区正己烷和三氯乙烯重点职业病的监测,为做好正己烷和三氯乙烯职业病防治工作提供科学依据.方法 筛查2011年1月1日至2012年7月31日辖区内的正己烷与三氯乙烯检测浓度高于国家职业卫生标准限值的企业,从中随机抽取60％的企业作为监测对象,对工作场所进行监测,对接触正己烷和三氯乙烯的劳动者进行职业健康检查,并对全部数据进行分析.结果 正己烷与三氯乙烯分别监测295家526个点、48家90个点,合格率分别为75.6％和81.2％；正己烷和三氯乙烯职业健康检查分别为1368人和210人,发现职业禁忌证分别为1.3％和1.4％,本次重点职业病监测并未发现职业病或者疑似职业病.结论 建立了正己烷和三氯乙烯的职业病监测体系,继续开展重点职业病监测工作能有效地发现早期职业病损,指导做好职业病防治工作。