Objectives: The objective of the study was to investigate the prevalence of undiagnosed dysglycaemia and the risk for type 2 dia betes using the Finnish Diabetes Risk Score (FINDRISC) in the working population of Belgium. Moreover, it was to evaluate performance and applicability of FINDRISC as a screening tool during occupational health surveillance. Material and Methods: A crosssectional analysis was carried out over the years 2010-2011 among 275 healthy employees who underwent a health check including fasting plasma glucose and the FINDRISC questionnaire. The sensitivity, specificity and predictive value of differ ent FINDRISC cutoff values to detect dysglycaemia was revised in the literature and then calculated. Results: The prevalence of unknown dysglycaemia was 1.8%. Twelve percent of the employees had a FINDRISC score of 12 to 14 corresponding to a moder ate risk of 17% to develop diabetes within the next 10 years, and 5.5% had a score of 15 or more corresponding to a high -very high risk of 33% to 50%. All dysglycaemic individuals had a FINDRISC score of 12 or higher. The sensitivity and specificity for detecting dysglycaemia was respectively 100% and 84.1% for a FINDRISC cut-off value ≥ 12; and 80% and 95.9% for a cut-off value ≥ 15. Conclusions: A considerable number of workers had dysglycaemia or was at risk for developing type 2 diabetes. The questionnaire is a reliable, valuable and easy to use screening tool in occupational health surveillance.
Objectives-To assess the prevalence of varicella zoster virus (VZV) antibodies in Flemish (Belgian) healthcare workers, to investigate the association between seronegativity and selected variables, and to assess the reliability of recall about disease as a predictor of immunity. Methods-A seroprevalence study of VZV antibodies (IgG) was conducted among a systematic sample of 4923 employees in various professional groups, employed in 22 hospitals in Flanders and Brussels (Belgium). Information about sex, age, department, job, and years of employment, the country of origin, and history of varicella was obtained. The presence of VZV antibodies was investigated with the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), Enzygnost anti VZV / IgG (Dade Behring, Marburg, Germany). Statistical analysis was performed by calculating prevalences and prevalence ratios (PRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV) of the recalled history were determined. Results-The prevalence of VZV seropositivity in Flemish healthcare workers was 98.5% (95% CI 98.1 to 98.8). Seronegativity was significantly associated with age and job, increasing with both older and younger age. The prevalence of seronegative workers was significantly less in nursing staV than non-nursing staV. There was no significant diVerence for sex and years of employment. The PPV and NPV of recalled history were 98.9% and 3.4%. Sensitivity and specificity were 83% and 38.9%. Conclusion-The prevalence of VZV seropositivity was very high in this sample of Flemish healthcare workers. Because of this low overall susceptibility, VZV infection seems not to be an important occupational risk among healthcare workers in Flanders. The increasing seronegativity above the age of 45 is possibly due to a loss of detectable antibodies. A positive history of varicella was a good predictor of immunity, but a negative history had no value as a predictor of susceptibility in adults. (Occup Environ Med 2000;57:621-626)
Purpose The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of high cardiovascular risk and the trend of cardiovascular risk factors in a large sample of Belgian workers. Methods A cross-sectional study was performed on the data of workers under medical surveillance by the non-profit occupational health service IDEWE in 2018. The prevalence of poor health for smoking, physical activity, body mass index (BMI), and blood pressure according to the American Heart Association (AHA) definition was investigated. The presence of three or more poor cardiovascular health metrics was considered high cardiovascular risk. A log-binomial regression model was used to compare the prevalence of high cardiovascular risk between economic sectors taking into account age and gender and to calculate predicted probabilities of high cardiovascular risk. Results Data about 212,792 workers were available. In 2018, overall, 7% of workers had high cardiovascular risk. Transport and construction had the highest prevalence of high cardiovascular risk, 14% and 12%, respectively. The lowest prevalence, 3%, was observed in education. Differences between sectors remained statistically significant after adjustment for age and gender. In men, workers in transport and storage and in construction had the highest predicted probability of high cardiovascular risk that increased with age. In women, highest predicted probability was observed in transport and storage. Conclusions When implementing health promotion initiatives, priority should be given to sectors and professions where risk factors are most prevalent or are increasing rapidly. Measures should be tailored to the special needs of the occupational groups at high risk.
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