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Respiratory disease and suicide among U.S. coal miners: is there a relationship?

A case-control study was performed to test whether or not respiratory disease in coal miners presented a risk for suicide. While coal miners in general do not experience elevated rates of suicide, coal miners with respiratory disease have been found to have high rates of psychiatric disability, especially depressive reactions. Further, depression has been related to suicide. To test the hypothesis, 50 suicide deaths from four National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health cohorts of coal miners were matched by age at death to two series of controls, a noncancer, nonaccident control series, and a cancer control series. Using odds ratios (tested by chi-square) the risks of obstructive lung disease and coal workers pneumoconiosis were evaluated together with the risks of years of underground mining, cigarette smoking at the time of cohort creation, and ever having smoked cigarettes. Neither respiratory disease was found to pose a statistically elevated risk of suicide in this sample of U.S. white male coal miners.

Adult↗

[Incidence of obstructive respiratory diseases in 1839-1850 at the Hospital for Poor Children in Pest].

According to the observations of several authors the number of obstructive respiratory diseases kept rising during the past decades, at the same time this disease was infrequent in the last century as indicated by the sporadically detectable data pertinent to adult patients. The 1st Pediatric Department of the Semmelweis University of Medicine, legal successor of the Poor-Children's Hospital of Pest is in possession of the complete case reports of 5050 out-patients of the period between 1839-1850. It can be established on the basis of these records that the diseases of the lower respiratory tract were frequent. Approximately 7 disease forms were distinguished with 323 children who suffered from bronchopathies. Of them only 13 (0.26% of the total patient material) were spasmodic bronchitis. Agoston Schopf, director of the hospital wrote at this period his book on Pediatrc. This work as well as the preparatory material of further tomes show clearly that the doctors of the hospital were well acquainted with the method of physical diagnostics and were capable to diagnose obstructive respiratory diseases. These case records are assumably the only pediatric patient material of this period not only in Hungary but also in Europe. Data confirm that obstructive respiratory diseases were infrequent at this period in children.

Ambulatory Care↗

The cell biology of acute childhood respiratory disease: therapeutic implications.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the recently identified human metapneumovirus (HMPV), and the human parainfluenza viruses (HPIVs), cause most cases of childhood croup, bronchiolitis, and pneumonia. Influenza virus also causes a significant burden of disease in young children, although its significance in children was not fully recognized until recently. This article discusses pathogens that have been studied for several decades, including RSV and HPIVs, and also explores the newly identified viral pathogens HMPV and human coronavirus NL63. The escalating rate of emergence of new infectious agents, fortunately meeting with equally rapid advancements in molecular methods of surveillance and pathogen discovery, means that new organisms will soon be added to the list. A section on therapies for bronchiolitis addresses the final common pathways that can result from infection with diverse pathogens, highlighting the mechanisms that may be amenable to therapeutic approaches. The article concludes with a discussion of the overarching impact of new diagnostic strategies.

Acute Disease↗

Is use of hospital services a proxy for morbidity? A small area comparison of the prevalence of arthritis, depression, dyspepsia, obesity, and respiratory disease with inpatient admission rates for these disorders in England.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between specific types of morbidity, measured by validated survey questions, and hospital service use and mortality to see if the latter two could act as a proxy in health needs assessment, health service planning, and resource allocation in a typical health district. DESIGN: A postal questionnaire was used to provide information about depression, digestive disorders, musculo-skeletal disorders, obesity, respiratory disease, and hip and knee pain. The questions were from survey instruments that have been widely used to derive information about these conditions. The relationships between the prevalence of these specific types of morbidity and appropriate admission and mortality rates were explored using linear regression and Pearson correlation analysis. SETTING: The population of Rotherham health district, England. SUBJECTS: A simple random sample of the residents of each of the 22 electoral wards in Rotherham health district. RESULTS: Responses were obtained from 78% of the 5000 sampled (82% after excluding people who had moved house or died). Significant, positive correlations were found between the prevalence of respiratory disease and the hospital admission and mortality rates for respiratory problems (r = 0.68, p < 0.01 and r = 0.54, p < 0.01) and the prevalence of depression and the admission rate for depression (r = 0.52, p < 0.05). No such relations were found for digestive disease, musculo-skeletal disease, and obesity. For the conditions examined here, hospital service use was a more useful measure than mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Only two diseases (respiratory disease and depression) out of the seven diseases or procedures investigated showed a positive correlation between hospital admission and disease prevalence. But even for these two, the correlations explained less than 50% of the variance. Caution must be exercised when hospital service use is being considered as a proxy for morbidity.

Adolescent↗

Retrospective analysis of etiologic agents associated with respiratory diseases in pigs.

Twenty-eight hundred and seventy-two cases of respiratory disease in pigs were analyzed for their etiologic agents. Two or more pathogens were detected from 88.2% of the cases, indicating that porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) or swine influenza virus (SIV) combined with other bacterial agents was a common cause for porcine respiratory diseases in the mid-western USA.

Animals↗

Physician based surveillance system for occupational respiratory diseases: the experience of PROPULSE, Québec, Canada.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the feasibility of implementing a physician based surveillance system of occupational respiratory diseases (PROPULSE) in Québec with regard to physician participation rate, characteristics of reported cases, and comparison with official statistics from the Workers' Compensation Board (WCB). METHODS: All chest physicians and allergists in Québec were asked to report suspected new cases of occupational respiratory diseases, on a monthly basis, between October 1992 and September 1993. For each case, personal information was collected and the physician's opinion on whether the condition was related to work was categorised as highly likely, likely, and unlikely. RESULTS: Of the 161 physicians initially approached, 68% participated. Physicians rated 48% of suspected cases as highly likely, 29% as likely, and 20% as unlikely. The most often reported diagnosis was asthma (63%), followed by diseases related to asbestos (16%). Silicosis was less frequent (5%) but it was reported for six workers under 40 of whom five were involved in sandblasting activities. The high proportion of cases of asthma probably reflects the increasing importance of this disease but may also reflect the different patterns of reporting among physicians with different expertise. The distribution of cases by diagnostic category is quite different between the PROPULSE system and that of the WCB (annual mean number of compensated cases during a four year period). Asthma and allergic alveolitis are more frequent in PROPULSE, reactive airways dysfunction syndrome are about the same in both systems, and other diseases are more frequent among compensated cases. The most frequent sensitising agents reported for asthma were the same in both systems (isocyanates, flour, and wood dust). 15% of the PROPULSE cases were not covered by the WCB, and therefore would not be found in the board's official statistics. CONCLUSIONS: A physician based reporting procedure can be implemented as part of a surveillance system to supplement data from other sources and thus provide a better understanding of the occurrence of occupational respiratory diseases.

Adult↗

Stepwise health surveillance for bronchial irritability syndrome in workers at risk of occupational respiratory disease.

OBJECTIVES: Questionnaires, lung function tests, and peak flow measurements are widely used in occupational health care to screen for subjects with respiratory disease. However, the diagnostic performance of these tests is often poor. Application of these tests in a stepwise manner would presumably result in a better characterisation of subjects with respiratory disease. METHODS: Cross sectional data from workers exposed to acid anhydrides, to laboratory animals, and to flour dusts were used. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated from cross tables of different (combinations of) tests for bronchial hyperresponsiveness and bronchial irritability in the past four weeks (BIS). From sensitivity and specificity likelihood ratios were computed and change in probability of BIS was calculated. RESULTS: The prevalence of BIS was 7%, 7%, and 5%, respectively. In all groups questionnaire data provided excellent sensitivity but poor specificity, which was inherent on the broad definition of symptoms. Adding the forced expiratory volume in one second/forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC) ratio yields almost perfect specificity, and peak expiratory flow (PEF) variability is intermediate in populations in which smoking induced or non-allergic respiratory diseases predominates. In occupational groups in which asthma is a problem, adding PEF measurements will optimise sensitivity and specificity in detection of BIS. The probability of BIS for subjects with a negative combined test outcome was lower than the probability before testing. Subjects with a positive combined test outcome had a probability of BIS after the tests at least three times the probability before. CONCLUSIONS: Combined testing yields better sensitivity and specificity. An advantage of combined testing is an economy in the effort to screen for subjects with BIS. Combined testing resulted in more detailed estimation of the probability of BIS.

Anhydrides↗

A case control study of lung cancer and non-malignant respiratory disease among employees in asphalt roofing manufacturing and asphalt production.

Two case control studies, one for lung cancer and one for non-malignant respiratory disease excluding influenza and pneumonia, of workers engaged in asphalt roofing manufacturing and asphalt production were performed to determine whether there was an increased risk associated with exposure to asphalt fumes or respirable crystalline silica in these industries. Industrial hygiene data for these roofing and asphalt plants do not exist before 1977. Pre-1977 exposure scenarios were constructed to estimate historic exposures for asphalt fumes and respirable crystalline silica. The only statistically significant elevated ORs were for cigarette smoking in both the lung cancer and the non-malignant disease analyses. The lack of an apparent dose-response relationship with exposure to asphalt fumes argues against an association between exposure to asphalt fumes at levels present in the industries reported on here and lung cancer and non-malignant respiratory disease, excluding influenza and pneumonia risk.

Adult↗

Ambient hydrogen sulfide, total reduced sulfur, and hospital visits for respiratory diseases in northeast Nebraska, 1998-2000.

This analysis examined associations between total reduced sulfur (TRS) and hydrogen sulfide (H(2)S) levels, and hospital visits for respiratory disease among residents of Dakota City and South Sioux City, Nebraska, from January 1998 to May 2000. For reference, the association between TRS, H(2)S, and digestive diseases was also examined. Time-series analyses of daily hospital visits in the selected outcome categories and measures of TRS and H(2)S were performed using generalized additive models with a Poisson link. TRS and H(2)S levels were categorized as high if at least one of the daily 30-min rolling averages was > or =30 ppb and as low if every rolling average was <30 ppb. Loess smoothers allowed for flexible modeling of the time effect and the effect of temperature and relative humidity. The measure of association used was the mean percent change in the average number of hospital visits recorded following a day with a high exposure versus a day with a low exposure. For children less than 18 years of age, a positive association was found between asthma hospital visits and 1-day lagged TRS levels. For adults, a positive association was found between asthma hospital visits and H(2)S levels on the previous day. A positive association also was found between hospital visits for all respiratory diseases, and H(2)S and TRS levels on the previous day for children but not for adults. No association was found between contaminant levels and hospital visits for all digestive diseases. These findings suggest that TRS or H(2)S levels may be associated with exacerbations of asthma or other respiratory diseases among the residents of Dakota City and South Sioux City.

Adolescent↗

Are mortality rates for respiratory diseases in the RSA affected by climate?

Age-standardized and age-specific mortality rates (MRs)/100 000 of whites for the pneumonias and chronic respiratory diseases averaged over the 3-year period 1979-1981 for four highveld cities, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Pretoria and Germiston, were compared with those for four coastal cities, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London--Durban being in the subtropics. The highveld cities have cold winter climates with air temperatures falling to freezing point in June and July, whereas the winters are mild in the coastal cities. In Durban, for example, the mean minimum monthly air temperature rarely falls below 10 degrees C in winter. Age-standardized MRs for the pneumonias were negatively associated with the average mean monthly minimum air temperatures in June-July. These rates were much higher in the highveld cities (varying from 63,9/100 000 to 71,4/100 000) than in the coastal cities (varying from 29,8/100 000 to 40,7/100 000). Age-specific MRs in the over-75-year age group in highveld cities were twice as high as the MRs of this age group in the coastal cities. Age-standardized MRs for chronic respiratory diseases, on the other hand, were not associated with winter air temperatures in these eight cities. Age-specific MRs for the over-75-year age group were also not related to the winter air temperatures in the eight cities. This lack of association between MRs for chronic respiratory diseases and winter air temperatures might be due to the confounding effect of air pollution.

Age Factors↗

[Respiratory diseases in European farmers. Part 1: Literature review].

Farming is still one of the most important economic sectors in the world. At the same time, a high prevalence of respiratory diseases in farmers is well known. Among these, allergic and non-allergic asthma, chronic bronchitis, hypersensitivity pneumonitis and organic dust toxic syndrome (ODTS) are of uppermost importance. Because of the large variety of agriculture across Europe exposure conditions and risk factors for airway diseases may vary largely. While exposure to organic dusts and irritants are most important in grain and animal production, workers in greenhouses are mainly exposed to pollen, fungi, as well as pesticides. Up to now, the knowledge about the prevalence of respiratory diseases in European farmers working in different agricultural sectors was limited. Furthermore, reliable data on farming characteristics as well as exposure patterns that might prone risk factors for respiratory diseases were missing. Therefore, the European Farmers' Project was initiated. The results of this study are given in the second part of this paper.

Agricultural Workers' Diseases↗

The association between serological titers in infectious bovine rhinotracheitis virus, bovine virus diarrhea virus, parainfluenza-3 virus, respiratory syncytial virus and treatment for respiratory disease in Ontario feedlot calves.

A seroepidemiological study of the association between antibody titers to infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, parainfluenza-3, bovine virus diarrhea and bovine respiratory syncytial viruses, and treatment for bovine respiratory disease was conducted. A total of 322 calves from five different groups were bled on arrival, then one month later all cases (cattle treated for bovine respiratory disease) were rebled together with an equal number of controls (cattle not treated for any disease). Titers to these viruses varied significantly from group to group. Based on seroconversion, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis virus was active in 4.4%, bovine virus diarrhea virus in 24%, parainfluenza-3 virus in 69.5% and bovine respiratory syncytial virus in 71.3% of the cattle. Cattle with low titers to infectious bovine rhinotracheitis and/or bovine respiratory syncytial viruses on arrival, were at increased risk of subsequent treatment for bovine respiratory disease. Treated cattle also had significantly greater increases to parainfluenza-3 and/or bovine virus diarrhea viruses than control calves. Treatment rates varied considerably from group to group and were not strongly correlated with weight gain in the postarrival period.

Animals↗