Risk factors for occupational acute mountain sickness.
Occup Med (Lond)
; 64(7): 483-9, 2014 Oct.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-25006096
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Studies of occupational acute mountain sickness (AMS) have not focused on the more severe end of the spectrum to date.AIMS:
To examine risk factors associated with the development of occupational AMS severe enough to receive treatment in a compression chamber.METHODS:
A nested case referent study in a cohort of high-altitude (4000 m) mine workers, comparing cases of severe, chamber-treated AMS to matched referents. Using logistic regression, we tested potential risk factors based on premorbid surveillance examinations, including cigarette smoking (current smoking, smoking intensity and exhaled carbon monoxide [CO]).RESULTS:
There were 15 cases and 30 controls. In multivariate analysis including age, sex and place of residence, current smoking was associated with increased risk of severe AMS (odds ratio [OR] 10.0; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.5-67.4), taking into account any prior, less severe AMS event, which was also a potent risk factor (OR 33.3; 95% CI 2.8-390). Smoking intensity (cigarettes per day) and exhaled CO were also statistically significantly associated with severe AMS.CONCLUSIONS:
Cigarette smoking is a strong, previously under-appreciated risk factor for severe AMS. Because this is a modifiable factor, these findings suggest that workplace-based smoking cessation should be tested as an intervention to prevent such morbidity.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Smoking
/
Altitude
/
Altitude Sickness
/
Occupational Diseases
Type of study:
Etiology_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
Occup Med (Lond)
Journal subject:
MEDICINA OCUPACIONAL
Year:
2014
Document type:
Article