Reference

Axon EJ, Beach JR, Burge PS, A Comparison Of Some Of The Characteristics Of Patients With Occupational And Non-Occupational Asthma, Occup Med, 1995;45:109-111,

BOHRF Original Authors' Main Conclusions

The original authors' main conclusions are taken from Abstract, Results and Discussion. They are decided upon by the authors of the BOHRF occupational asthma guidelines and form part of the guidelines.

Study aimed to determine the differences between patients with occupational asthma and those with non-occupational asthma, which might help in their diagnosis. Questionnaires were distributed to 30 subjects aged 18-65 years at each of two clinics--one for patients with occupational asthma and one for those with cryptogenic and environmental asthma. The age of onset was significantly higher for those with occupational asthma (42.6 vs 20.7 years). Significantly more subjects with occupational asthma reported improvement on holiday, whereas no significant difference was found in the numbers reporting worsening of symptoms on workdays. Those with occupational asthma were less likely to report seasonal variation in symptoms, exacerbation by allergies, pets and stress, or a family history of asthma. Subjects with occupational asthma were more likely to become unemployed (50% vs 3%). Recognition of some of these features in a patient's history may help in the difficult task of differentiating occupational asthma from non-OA, potentially avoiding the need for exhaustive investigations in some patients.

BOHRF Associated Evidence Statements

The BOHRF occupational asthma guidelines state that this reference is associated with the following evidence statements

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3

Free histories taken by experts have high sensitivity, but their specificity may be lower.

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Approximately one third of workers with occupational asthma are unemployed up to 6 years after diagnosis.

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Workers with occupational asthma suffer financially.