The prevalence of hand dermatitis in different occupational groups was estimated using a standardized questionnaire in a series of surveys among workers of a chemical company, a municipal electricity company, municipal public works, nurses and surgical assistants. A survey in a sample of the general population was performed to obtain a reference estimate of the prevalence. The prevalence of hand dermatitis in the general population was 5.2% in men and 10.6% in women. The prevalence of hand dermatitis among the occupational groups ranged from 2.9% in office workers to approximately 30% in nurses. The age-adjusted prevalence ratio (PR) of hand dermatitis in office workers was not significantly elevated compared with the general population. In nurses, the age-adjusted PR was 9.3 among men (95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.6-23.9) and 2.2 among women (95% CI: 1.5-3.5). The PR in surgical assistants was not significantly elevated (PR = 1.4, 95% CI: 0.7-2.6). This suggests that exposure in nurses (frequent washing of the hands), is more harmful to the skin than the less frequent but more intensive exposure in surgical assistants. The age-adjusted PR were also significantly elevated in male manual workers of the chemical company, the electricity company and public works and varied from 2.4 to 2.8. Occasional or regular occupational exposure to a variety of irritants in combination with mechanical stress (as occurs frequently in manual work) may be responsible for this observation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Thorax 2003;58:567-572 Background: Environment and lifestyle contribute to the development of asthma in children. Understanding the relevant factors in this relationship may provide methods of prevention. The role of diet in the development of asthma in pre-school children was investigated. Methods: Data from 2978 children participating in a prospective birth cohort study were used. Food frequency data were collected at the age of 2 years and related to asthma symptoms reported at the age of 3 years. Results: The prevalence of recent asthma at age 3 was lower in children who consumed (at age 2) full cream milk daily (3.4%) than in those who did not (5.6%) and in those who consumed butter daily (1.5%) than in those who did not (5.1%). The prevalence of recent wheeze was lower in children who consumed milk products daily (13.7%) than in those who did not (18.4%) and in children who consumed butter daily (7.7%) than in those who did not (15.4%). These effects remained in a logistic regression model including different foods and confounders (adjusted odds ratio (CI) for recent asthma: full cream milk daily v rarely 0.59 (0.40 to 0.88), butter daily v rarely 0.28 (0.09 to 0.88)). Daily consumption of brown bread was also associated with lower rates of asthma and wheeze, whereas no associations were observed with the consumption of fruits, vegetables, margarine, and fish. Conclusions: In pre-school children, frequent consumption of products containing milk fat is associated with a reduced risk of asthma symptoms.

No abstract

Child care attendance or having siblings increases the risk of developing doctor-diagnosed LRTI in the first year of life to a greater extent in allergy-prone children than in children who are not allergy prone.

Data on the incidence and induction time of hand dermatitis are not available from the literature. To assist the planning of a prospective study on risk factors for hand dermatitis, a retrospective cohort study was performed in nurses and office employees to obtain a rough estimate of the incidence and induction time of hand dermatitis in these occupational groups. Data were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire with validated questions on symptoms of hand dermatitis. The cohort consisted of 371 nurses and 111 office employees who were newly employed by a University Hospital between 1 January 1987 and 31 December 1988. Follow-up ended on 30 September 1989. Subjects who reported that symptoms had already occurred before entering the study were excluded for analysis on the incidence, leaving 298 nurses and 101 office employees for further analysis. Due to limitations of the retrospective study design, only half of the cases were able to report the exact month of occurrence of symptoms. Therefore only a rough estimate could be made of the incidence and induction period, assuming that the distribution of person-months of observation in cases with a known incidence date was equal to that of cases with unknown incidence dates. Thus, it was estimated that the overall incidence was 6.5 cases/1000 person-months in nurses and 1 case/1000 person-months in office employees. In nurses, 72% of the cases occurred within 3 months of follow-up.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)