Occupational Asthmagens in Cleaners: A Focus Group Study

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DESCRIPTION: Occupational asthma (OA) is currently the most frequently reported diagnosis of work-related respiratory disease in developed nations. The prevalence of work-related asthma and work-related wheezing in the U.S. is 3.7% and 11.5% respectively and the proportion of asthma attributed to occupational exposures varies from 28.5% to 36.5%. In the U.S. approximately 3% of the working population reportedly works in the cleaning occupation. Several studies, primarily from the European countries, have found an association between occupational exposures and cleaners. However, the major limitations of these studies were non-inclusion of the work aspect in formulating the definition of asthma as the outcome variable, and poor characterization of exposures. We propose to conduct a focus group study to 1) identify an appropriate population of domestic and industrial cleaners; 2) determine the feasibility of contacting and tracking representative groups of domestic and industrial cleaners, for use in future studies of asthma in this worker group; 3) characterize occupational exposures among domestic and industrial cleaners; 4) use information obtained from the focus groups to develop a Job Exposure Matrix that could be used in future studies of asthma in this worker group; and 5) develop and pilot test an English and Spanish version of a survey instrument for use in future studies of asthma among domestic and industrial cleaners. A total of twelve focus group interview sessions (six sessions involving domestic cleaners and six involving industrial cleaners) are proposed for this study. Approximately 12 people (with the aim of 6-10 people attending), between the ages of 18 and 70 and working as a cleaner for at least one year, will be invited to participate in each session. Each session will be moderated by a bi-lingual moderator, who will then use the open ended semi-structured questionnaire to ask questions regarding occupational task, occupational exposures, and asthma and allergy symptoms. At the end of each session, the research team will meet for debriefing. The focus group interview sessions will be audio taped. The interview session audiotapes will be transcribed and analyzed using the content analysis model using "Ethnograph" qualitative analysis software. The information from the focus group interviews will be used to develop JEM and a draft survey instrument for use among cleaners.