Associations of occupation, employment type and company size with actions related to health examinations among Japanese employees.

Taking action in response to health examination results is important to stay healthy. We aimed to investigate the associations between occupation, employment type and company size, and having a health examination and taking action in response to the results among Japanese employees. We focused on three particular actions by employees in response to health examination results: paying attention to one's health, receiving health guidance, and visiting a medical institution. We used anonymous data from the 2010 Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions of Japan, a self-administered nationwide questionnaire survey. The data of 23,963 employees (12,938 male and 11,025 female) aged 20-64 yr were analyzed using logistic regression models adjusted by covariates. There were significant changes in odds ratios for receiving a health examination by occupation, employment type and company size. We found significant odds ratios for receiving health guidance by occupation and company size, but there was almost no significant association with paying attention to one's health and visiting a medical institution. These results confirmed that receiving a health examination was associated with occupational factors, and suggested that receiving health guidance after health examination results was associated with occupation and company size.

Significant improvement from chronic beryllium disease following corticosteroid pulse therapy.

Chronic beryllium disease (CBD) is a rare disease characterized by diffuse interstitial pulmonary granulomatosis. We report a case of CBD which exhibited marked improvement both subjectively and objectively following pulse therapy. The patient was a 36-year-old man whose chief complaint was dyspnea and a dry cough. Since July 1990, the patient had been working in the development of an automatic or mechanical technique for producing beryllium-copper alloy. It appeared likely that the patient may have been exposed to metal beryllium fumes generated from an opening located just above the furnace. The Be concentration exceeded 25 microg/m3 transiently in the breathing zone in this workplace. A chest X-ray film taken in October 1994 showed fine granular shadows throughout the entire lung fields. Around August 1998, the patient's dyspnea became aggravated. An X-ray taken at that time showed linear and reticular shadows, in addition to the diffuse fine granular shadow. In October 1998, after 3 days of methylprednisolone pulse therapy, oral prednisolone 30 mg was initiated. With this treatment, the patient's pulmonary function tests and blood gases improved. Once the patient's condition had improved sufficiently, the dosage of prednisolone was decreased by 2.5 mg every two weeks. The patient continues to be monitored.