Occupational Asthmagens in Cleaners: A Focus Group Study

描述：职业性哮喘是目前发达国家最常见的职业性呼吸系统疾病诊断报告。在美国，与工作相关的哮喘和与工作相关的喘息的患病率分别为3.7%和11.5%，由于职业暴露而导致的哮喘比例各不相同 从28.5%降至36.5%。据报道，在美国，大约3%的工作人口从事清洁工作。几项主要来自欧洲国家的研究发现，职业暴露与清洁工之间存在关联。然而，这些研究的主要局限性是，在制定哮喘作为结果变量的定义时没有包括工作方面，以及暴露的特征不佳。我们建议进行一次焦点小组研究，以1)确定适当的 这项工作包括：(1)确定家庭清洁工和工业清洁工人群中具有代表性的人群的接触和跟踪的可行性；(2)确定联系和跟踪有代表性的家庭清洁工和工业清洁工群体的可行性，以便在未来对这一工人群体的哮喘进行研究；(3)确定家庭清洁工和工业清洁工的职业暴露特征；(4)利用从重点小组获得的信息，编制可用于这一工人群体未来哮喘研究的工作暴露矩阵；以及(5)开发和试点测试一种调查工具的英文和西班牙语版本，用于未来对家庭清洁工和工业清洁工的哮喘研究。本研究共设十二次焦点小组访谈(六次涉及家庭清洁工，六次涉及工业清洁工)。每期会议将邀请大约12人参加(目标是6-10人参加)，年龄在18岁至70岁之间，从事清洁工工作至少一年。每一次会议将由一名双语主持人主持，然后由主持人使用开放式半结构问卷询问有关职业任务、职业暴露、哮喘和过敏症状的问题。在每次会议结束时，研究小组将开会汇报情况。将对焦点小组访谈过程进行录音。访谈录音带将被转录，并使用“民族志”定性分析软件的内容分析模型进行分析。来自焦点小组面谈的信息将用于制定联合调查组和一份供清洁工使用的调查文书草案。

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.