Physician Notified Work-Related Diseases Among Farmers in Norway: Data from 2007 - 2016.

Introduction: This study provided a profile of work-related diseases in the farming sector notified by physicians to the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority's (NLIA) Registry for Work-Related Diseases (RAS) over a 10-year period.Methods: Data for the occupational code "farmers" were extracted from RAS for the period 2007-2016. We performed a descriptive analysis to obtain frequency, percentage, and incidence distribution of the data. We also explored the relationship of the notified diagnosis with gender, age, occupational exposures and the type of reporting physicians.Results: Four hundred and sixty-nine cases of work-related diseases among farmers were notified in the period 2007-2016. Eighty-seven percent of the reported cases were males. The incidence of work-related diseases for the entire study period was computed to be 114/100 000 workers. The incidence and number of cases notified were highest among males and for the age group 55-74 years. Noise was the most frequently reported occupational exposure accounted for 291 cases. Hearing loss constituted for 62% of the notified cases, followed by respiratory diseases that accounted for 20% of the cases. Forty-eight cases of skin diseases, while only a few cases of musculoskeletal (n = 7) and mental disorders (n = 1) were notified. There was a strong association (λ = 0.51) between occupational exposure and notified diagnosis, and a moderate association (λ = 0.32) between type of reporting physician and the notified diagnosis.Conclusion: This profile of the physician notified work-related diseases among farmers in Norway yielded a suppressed estimate of the actual incidence of cases. The biased distribution of nature and number of work-related diseases amongst farmers is primarily attributed to the significant undercount of cases. Physician underreporting of cases to the NLIA coupled with lack of Occupational Health Services coverage of workers in the farming sector contributes to this undercount of cases.

Trends in incidence of occupational asthma, contact dermatitis, noise-induced hearing loss, carpal tunnel syndrome and upper limb musculoskeletal disorders in European countries from 2000 to 2012.

OBJECTIVES: The European Union (EU) strategy for health and safety at work underlines the need to reduce the incidence of occupational diseases (OD), but European statistics to evaluate this common goal are scarce. We aim to estimate and compare changes in incidence over time for occupational asthma, contact dermatitis, noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and upper limb musculoskeletal disorders across 10 European countries. METHODS: OD surveillance systems that potentially reflected nationally representative trends in incidence within Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the UK provided data. Case counts were analysed using a negative binomial regression model with year as the main covariate. Many systems collected data from networks of 'centres', requiring the use of a multilevel negative binomial model. Some models made allowance for changes in compensation or reporting rules. RESULTS: Reports of contact dermatitis and asthma, conditions with shorter time between exposure to causal substances and OD, were consistently declining with only a few exceptions. For OD with physical causal exposures there was more variation between countries. Reported NIHL was increasing in Belgium, Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands and decreasing elsewhere. Trends in CTS and upper limb musculoskeletal disorders varied widely within and between countries. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first direct comparison of trends in OD within Europe and is consistent with a positive impact of European initiatives addressing exposures relevant to asthma and contact dermatitis. Taking a more flexible approach allowed comparisons of surveillance data between and within countries without harmonisation of data collection methods.

Educational attainment of Norwegian men: influence of parental and early individual characteristics.

The life course perspective in social inequalities in health research has resulted in an increased interest in status attainment processes. Adult status is commonly measured as occupational class, income level or educational attainment, and the latter was applied in this study. The study objective was to estimate the relative contribution of parental and early individual characteristics on educational attainment. The study population comprised all males born in Norway in 1967-1971, and alive at age 28 years (n=160,914). Data on social and biological variables were compiled from birth onwards in several national registers. Information on educational attainment at age 28 years was derived from Statistics Norway. Mean years of education was 12.62 years (SD 2.24). Educational attainment was strongly associated with general ability score at age 18 years and parental educational attainment. Parental income had more limited influence; all other early factors had only marginal effect. Path analysis results suggest that the direct effect of general ability was of the same size as the combined direct and indirect effect of parental education and income. The results suggest that status attainment in this young male population is mainly dependent on general ability and parental education level.