Occupational Contact Dermatitis in Hospital Cleaning Workers.

BACKGROUND: Health care workers and hospital cleaning workers are at high risk regarding the development of occupational contact dermatitis (OCD). OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence and risk factors of OCD in hospital cleaning workers. METHODS: A questionnaire was conducted in 245 cleaning workers in our cross-sectional study. The 236 cleaning workers formed the study group. In workers who were prediagnosed with dermatitis, physical examination was performed in the Dermatology Outpatient Clinic, and when necessary, patch test, skin biopsy, and investigation for total immunoglobulin E were conducted. Patients with definite contact dermatitis were diagnosed as having OCD by using the Mathias criteria. RESULTS: The prevalence rate of OCD was 21.6% and was significantly higher in female workers (26.4%) when compared with male workers (11.0%). Female sex; low educational level; cleaning the external surfaces of the medical equipment, monitors, and accessories; and mixing the cleaning products and use them while performing cleaning activities were determined as the independent risk factors for OCD. CONCLUSIONS: Occupational contact dermatitis was present at a high rate in hospital cleaning workers. The risk factors should be taken into consideration for prevention of OCD and improvement of the health status of hospital cleaning workers.

Hypertension in children (12-14 years)--a case-control study in Bursa, Turkey.

The aim of this study was to determine the cardiovascular disease risk factors (risk of overweight/overweight, dyslipidemia, paraoxonase-1 activity, positive family history, physical inactivity, smoking) that accompany hypertension and investigate the relationship between hypertension and some of these risk factors. This study included 118 hypertensives and 118 age- and sex-matched non-hypertensive controls aged 12-14 years. Among controls, 64.4% had no risk factor. Among cases, 34.8% had no risk factor other than hypertension, and 65.2% had two or more risk factors. The adjusted odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval [CI]) of hypertension was 5.65 (2.88-11.09) for risk of overweight/overweight. Body mass index, paraoxonase and arylesterase activities were significantly higher in hypertensives than those of the control group. We conclude that it would be useful to routinely evaluate blood pressure and body weight at schools and, additionally, considering that hypertension alone is encountered rarely, it would be appropriate to examine the hypertensive students for other risk factors.

Prevalence and risk factors of hypertension among schoolchildren aged 12-14 years in Bursa, Turkey.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the hypertension prevalence and risk factors related to hypertension among schoolchildren aged 12-14 years in Bursa, Turkey. METHODS: We conducted this study at the Bursa Provincial Center between February and June 2006. Two thousand and four hundred seventy-eight schoolchildren were randomly selected. The evaluation of elevated blood pressure was carried out according to The Fourth Report on the Diagnosis, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure in Children and Adolescents. RESULTS: Of the 2,478 students screened, 350 (14.1%) has prehypertension, 147 (5.4%) has hypertension, and 40 (1.6%) has malign hypertension. There was a statistically significant relationship between hypertension prevalence and aged, gender, family history of hypertension, and body mass index >/=85th percentile. CONCLUSION: Blood pressure measurements should be in physical examinations as part of continuing care of a child. The prevention of overweight and risk of overweight can decrease the prevalence of hypertension.

Clinical characteristics of tension-type headache and migraine in adolescents: a student-based study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Adolescent headaches, particularly migraine, might present with different features from adult headaches. The objectives of this study were to investigate the characteristics of tension-type headache and migraine, to find the sensitivity and specificity of the diagnostic criteria of the IHS classification according to age and gender. METHODS: A multistep, stratified, cluster sampling method was used for subject selection. The estimated sample size was 2387. The study was conducted in two phases: the questionnaire and the face to face interview phases. During the semistructured interview, a clinical diagnosis has been made and clinical characteristics have been recorded. RESULTS: All headaches fulfilled the criteria of duration. The most common feature of migraine was moderate to severe (92.4%), pulsating pain (79.2%). For ETTH, bilateral localization (91.3%) and mild to moderate pain intensity (90.6%) were the most common features. Younger adolescents showed mixed headache characteristics. Highest sensitivities for migraine were duration (100%), moderate to severe pain (92.4%), and pulsating quality of pain (79.2%). Vomiting, trigger factors food and alcohol had a high specificity for migraine. CONCLUSIONS: Our data strongly support continuum hypothesis. In early adolescence headaches might present with mixed headache characteristics. Age and gender have some influence on headache characteristics, particularly on migraine. The sensitivity and specificity of case definition criteria of ICHD-2 for adolescent migraine is moderate and need to be reconsidered.

Headache prevalence in adolescents aged 12 to 17: a student-based epidemiological study in Bursa.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence and sociodemographic characteristics of headaches among Turkish adolescents aged 12 to 17 years old in Bursa province of Turkey. METHODS: A multistep, stratified, cluster sampling method was used for subject selection. The estimated sample size for 12- to 14-year-old students was 1,270 and for 15- to 17-year-old students was 1,117. Our study sample included 6.5% of the secondary schools and 1.8% of the students aged 12 to 17 years old. The study was conducted in two phases; the questionnaire phase and the face-to-face interview phase. RESULTS: The prevalence of recurrent headache in the study population was 52.2%. Girls (59.8%) had significantly more recurrent headache than boys (45.1%) The prevalence of recurrent headache increased from 42.2% up to 60.7% by age. In multivariate logistic regression analysis age and gender differed significantly between adolescents with and without recurrent headache groups. Frequent episodic tension-type headache was the most common (25.9%) headache among Turkish adolescents, followed by migraine (14.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Age and gender appeared to be demographic factors increasing adolescent headache prevalence. Frequent episodic-tension type headache was the most common headache followed by migraine. Our migraine prevalence was slightly higher than most of the previously reported prevalence rates. This might be due to the new classification criteria of headache released by International Headache Society.

Distribution of blood pressures in Gemlik District, north-west Turkey.

The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the prevalence, awareness and control of hypertension among individuals over 30 years of age and to plan a follow-up programme for the same age group. A community-based sample of 1992 individuals (952 men and 1,040 women) was selected randomly. Out of the total study population, 1,388 (69.7%) individuals had normal blood pressure according to World Health Organisation criteria (systolic blood pressure < 140 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure < 90 mmHg), and the rest (n = 604, 30.3%) had hypertension to varying degrees. Since 61 individuals with normal blood pressure were using antihypertensive medication, the overall hypertension prevalence was 33.4%. Among the study subjects with hypertension, 44.4% were aware of their condition, 37.7% were using medication and 9.2% had controlled hypertension. One out of five individuals (n = 399, 20.0%) had never had their blood pressure measured before. Females had a higher hypertension prevalence than males (36.7% and 29.7%, respectively). Hypertension prevalence increased with age and individuals with a body mass index > 25 were at greater risk. The present findings suggest that there is a need to implement an effective, community-based and low-cost management programme.

Blood lead levels of traffic policemen in Bursa, Turkey.

This study was conducted in January 2001, in Bursa, Turkey. Of the 99 traffic policemen who were included in the study, 21 were office workers. Blood lead levels were determined by using an electro-thermal atomic absorption spectrometer (ET-AAS). Average blood lead levels were 9.4 +/- 1.6 micrograms/l and 8.7 +/- 1.7 micrograms/l for policemen working outdoors and indoors, respectively. The difference between the two groups was statistically insignificant (P > 0.05). When policemen less than 15 years on duty were taken into account (n = 48) the difference between the outdoors and indoors working groups was significant (9.3 +/- 1.3 and 8.2 +/- 1.8 micrograms/l, P < 0.05). In order to prevent the negative effects of tetraethyl lead on humans and the environment the use of lead in petrol must be prohibited.