Chest Radiography in Occupational Health Examinations for Hospital Employees. Taking Decisions

Abstract

Background: The routine chest radiography has been legally suppressed because of its low diagnostic protilabity in non selected populations. Health surweillance of occupational populations at respitatory risk is enteting a transitional period, where new guidelines are needed. Therefore, we determined to study the percentage of pathological fidings in the chest radiographies of health examinations for hospital workers and whether it was possible to obtain explicative models allowing to calculate the probability of radiographies alteration. Methods: A representative stratified sample of workers belonging to the Hospital La Paz in Madrid is studied, elaborating a transversal study based on the fírst health examination of their clinical history and two chest radiographies of further examinations. We carried out a multivariant analysis to calculate the probability of their alteration. Results: We obtain alterations percentages of 19 % for the fírst chest radiography; 23,5 %, 22 % and 21 % for the two futther ones and for the total, respectively. The explicative odels obtained are based on age, family and personal antecedents of the respiratory disease, number of cigarrettes smoked, cholesterol levels, the Manotux test and the previous radiographies alteration. Conclusions: These equations may be an additional instrument together with labour environment considerations and within a clinical context, to help to the health specific occasional surweillance of the respiratory risks of hospital personnel.