PMID- 36384486
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20221121
LR  - 20221127
IS  - 1471-2458 (Electronic)
IS  - 1471-2458 (Linking)
VI  - 22
IP  - 1
DP  - 2022 Nov 16
TI  - Comparison of agreement in asthmagen exposure assessments between rule-based 
      automatic algorithms and a job exposure matrix in healthcare workers in Australia 
      and Bhutan.
PG  - 2089
LID - 10.1186/s12889-022-14514-w [doi]
LID - 2089
AB  - BACKGROUND: Assessment of occupational exposures is an integral component of 
      population-based studies investigating the epidemiology of occupational diseases. 
      However, all the available methods for exposure assessment have been developed, 
      tested and used in high-income countries. Except for a few studies examining 
      pesticide exposures, there is limited research on whether these methods are 
      appropriate for assessing exposure in LMICs. The aim of this study is to compare 
      a task-specific algorithm-based method (OccIDEAS) to a job-specific matrix method 
      (OAsJEM) in the assessment of asthmagen exposures among healthcare workers in a 
      high-income country and a low- and middle- income country (LMIC) to determine an 
      appropriate assessment method for use in LMICs for future research. METHODS: Data 
      were obtained from a national cross-sectional survey of occupational asthmagens 
      exposure in Australia and a cross-sectional survey of occupational chemical 
      exposure among Bhutanese healthcare workers. Exposure was assessed using OccIDEAS 
      and the OAsJEM. Prevalence of exposure to asthmagens and inter-rater agreement 
      were calculated. RESULTS: In Australia, the prevalence was higher for a majority 
      of agents when assessed by OccIDEAS than by the OAsJEM (13 versus 3). OccIDEAS 
      identified exposures to a greater number of agents (16 versus 7). The agreement 
      as indicated by kappa (Cohen's Kappa coefficient) for six of the seven agents 
      assessed was poor to fair (0.02 to 0.37). In Bhutan, the prevalence of exposure 
      assessed by OccIDEAS was higher for four of the seven agents and kappa was poor for 
      all the four agents assessed (-0.06 to 0.13). The OAsJEM overestimated exposures 
      to high-level disinfectants by assigning exposures to all participants from 10 
      (Bhutan) and 12 (Australia) ISCO-88 codes; whereas OccIDEAS assigned exposures to 
      varying proportions of participants from these ISCO-codes. CONCLUSION: There was 
      poor to fair agreement in the assessment of asthmagen exposure in healthcare 
      workers between the two methods. The OAsJEM overestimated the prevalence of 
      certain exposures. As compared to the OAsJEM, OccIDEAS appeared to be more 
      appropriate for evaluating cross-country exposures to asthmagens in healthcare 
      workers due to its inherent quality of assessing task-based determinants and its 
      versatility in being adaptable for use in different countries with different 
      exposure circumstances.
CI  - (c) 2022. The Author(s).
FAU - Rai, Rajni
AU  - Rai R
AD  - School of Population Health, Curtin University, Kent St, 6102, Bentley, WA, 
      Australia.
FAU - Fritschi, Lin
AU  - Fritschi L
AD  - School of Population Health, Curtin University, Kent St, 6102, Bentley, WA, 
      Australia. lin.fritschi@curtin.edu.au.
FAU - Glass, Deborah C
AU  - Glass DC
AD  - School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, 
      VIC, Australia.
FAU - Dorji, Nidup
AU  - Dorji N
AD  - Faculty of Nursing and Public Health, Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical 
      Sciences of Bhutan, Thimphu, Bhutan.
FAU - El-Zaemey, Sonia
AU  - El-Zaemey S
AD  - School of Population Health, Curtin University, Kent St, 6102, Bentley, WA, 
      Australia.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20221116
PL  - England
TA  - BMC Public Health
JT  - BMC public health
JID - 100968562
SB  - IM
MH  - Humans
MH  - Bhutan/epidemiology
MH  - Cross-Sectional Studies
MH  - *Occupational Exposure
MH  - Health Personnel
MH  - Algorithms
PMC - PMC9670628
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Asthma
OT  - Epidemiology methodology
OT  - Healthcare workers
OT  - Occupational exposure assessment
COIS- The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
EDAT- 2022/11/18 06:00
MHDA- 2022/11/22 06:00
PMCR- 2022/11/16
CRDT- 2022/11/17 09:44
PHST- 2022/06/19 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2022/11/01 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2022/10/27 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2022/11/17 09:44 [entrez]
PHST- 2022/11/18 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2022/11/22 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2022/11/16 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 10.1186/s12889-022-14514-w [pii]
AID - 14514 [pii]
AID - 10.1186/s12889-022-14514-w [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - BMC Public Health. 2022 Nov 16;22(1):2089. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-14514-w.