The influence of age, waist circumference and smoking on the respiratory function indices on the example of employees of a chrome ore mine

Abstract

Introduction. Employees engaged in mining are exposed to several harmful (hazardous) occupation factors: dust factor, industrial noise, general and local vibration, hard labour, heating or cooling microclimate. The paper aims at studying the influence of the length of employment in underground chrome ore mining coupled with biological (age, obesity) and behavioral (smoking) parameters on spirometric bronchial obstruction indices. Material and methods. The study included 134 employees of a chrome ore mine having underground experience from 1 to 33 years. The comparison group comprised of 404 people who had never worked in a mine. External respiration function was evaluated using the Spirometer SP-1 (Schiller). Statistical processing was carried out using the SPSS 22. One-factor and multi-factor linear regression models were built. Results. The construction of one-factor linear regression models of the dependence of FEV1%, FVC% considering the selected independent factors (age, waist circumference, smoking experience, underground experience) showed a statistically significant effect on the dependent variable of all factors in the model (R2 = 0.010-0.135; p = 0.026-0.0001). The variability of obstructive parameters in a multi-factor linear regression model occurs not often in terms of the studied factors (as for FEV1%, R2 = 0.163; as for FVC%, R2 = 0.107). Smoking experience and waist circumference are the most significant factors leading to the decrease in these indices. Age and underground work experience are less important, but statistically significant. Limitations. The limitation of the results of the study was that they characterize a specific set of certain working conditions and lifestyles of workers in chromium mines. Conclusion. A small part of the impact on the obstruction indices of underground work experience might be due to the use of modern engineering systems to eliminate the harmful effects of occupation factors, as well as personal respiratory protection from dust exposure.