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Objectives: The most frequently seen occupational pulmonary disease is“Occupational asthma”which is a health problem in industrial societies.The prevelance and affected jobs are unknown.The aim in this study is to determine the asthma prevelance in barbers and hairdressers, investigate the relationship between occupational exposure and asthma.
Methods: 1178 people were called who were the member of Denizli Esnaf ve Sanatkarlar Odası(A non-governmental organization was founded by barbers and hairdressers in Denizli)and 208 of them were included in this study. The people got posterioanterior X-ray, and PFTs.Each of them were surveyed with the modified Turkish form of ECRHS II.The quetionnaire was consisted of 71questions and 26 questions of them to plan this study.The people who answered “Yes” for the first 10 questions were accepted having “Asthma like symptoms”.The differences in cathegorical variables were analyzed with Chi Square.
Results: The features of participants. The mean age was 35.8±8.9(Min 20,max 84).FEV1/FVC ratio was found: 82.07%±6 FEV1:92.5%±10.2,FVC 95.5%±11.4 in mean PFT measurements. The people who have “Asthma like symptoms” were 124 persons. There was a statistically significant relationship between occupational exposure and “Asthma like symptoms”(p=0.043).When we surveyed relationship between job and asthma,15 of barbers (41.7%)and 21 of hairdressers had asthma, have too.There was no significant statistical relationship between jobs and asthma (p=0.156) 9 persons (25%) of the participants who born in country,27persons(75%)of participants who born in city have asthma.Asthma was seen more in the people who born in city than those who born in country (p=0.029). 11 of the people (30.6%) have asthma whose mothers that have asthma. 6 of the people(16,7%)have asthma whose fathers that have asthma too. There was a positive statistically significant relationship between the frequency of asthma and familial asthma (Mother p=0.021; father p=0.012).
Conclusion: Asthma is a disease, have personal and enviromental predispositions in etiology. Although occupational asthma is a disease which increases in industrial regions and which is also in relationship with a lot of jobs that have powder, smoke and gas, exposures regularly. Thus “Asthma like symptoms” were seen more frequently in people who answered yes for occupational exposure in questionnaire and bronchial hiperreactivity could be occured too. Our results are similar with the world literature that the people who were born in the country less probably have asthma disease than those who were born in the city, and the people who have familial asthma are at much greater risk. Occupational history can be the most important thing for protecting the patients from heavy treatment by applying some simple precautions.