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Migration, Work, and Health: Lessons Learned from a Clinical Case Series in a Northern Italy Public Hospital
Background: Migrant workers (MWs) generally perform dangerous jobs and have reduced access to occupational health (OH) care, therefore being prone to developing occupational diseases (OD). The aim of the work is to describe a case series of MWs and report on related outcomes for OH professionals. Me...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6747097/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31438461 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16173007 |
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author | Arici, Cecilia Tamhid, Tishad Porru, Stefano |
author_facet | Arici, Cecilia Tamhid, Tishad Porru, Stefano |
author_sort | Arici, Cecilia |
collection | PubMed |
description | Background: Migrant workers (MWs) generally perform dangerous jobs and have reduced access to occupational health (OH) care, therefore being prone to developing occupational diseases (OD). The aim of the work is to describe a case series of MWs and report on related outcomes for OH professionals. Methods: A case series of 724 MWs, sent from January 2001 to June 2013 to a public OH unit for OD or fitness-for-work (FFW) evaluation, was entered in a dedicated database and elaborated for descriptive statistics with Microsoft Excel. Results: MWs were mostly (75%) men, with a mean age of 40. They came mainly from Morocco, Senegal, Albania, Romania, and Pakistan. Main sectors of employment were manufacturing, metal industry, services, construction. OD were found in 210 cases, main diagnoses being: Lumbar disc and upper limb musculoskeletal disorders (51%), contact dermatitis (15%), allergic asthma (8%), noise-induced hearing loss (7%), tumors (3%), psychiatric disorders (2%). Moreover, 136 FFW judgements were formulated, with some limitations/restrictions expressed. Finally, a relevant prevalence of some chronic non-occupational diseases was found. Conclusions: MWs in Italy may suffer from OH inequalities. Qualified public OH professionals and occupational physicians in workplaces should have a proactive role to concretely meet MWs’ health needs. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6747097 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-67470972019-09-27 Migration, Work, and Health: Lessons Learned from a Clinical Case Series in a Northern Italy Public Hospital Arici, Cecilia Tamhid, Tishad Porru, Stefano Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: Migrant workers (MWs) generally perform dangerous jobs and have reduced access to occupational health (OH) care, therefore being prone to developing occupational diseases (OD). The aim of the work is to describe a case series of MWs and report on related outcomes for OH professionals. Methods: A case series of 724 MWs, sent from January 2001 to June 2013 to a public OH unit for OD or fitness-for-work (FFW) evaluation, was entered in a dedicated database and elaborated for descriptive statistics with Microsoft Excel. Results: MWs were mostly (75%) men, with a mean age of 40. They came mainly from Morocco, Senegal, Albania, Romania, and Pakistan. Main sectors of employment were manufacturing, metal industry, services, construction. OD were found in 210 cases, main diagnoses being: Lumbar disc and upper limb musculoskeletal disorders (51%), contact dermatitis (15%), allergic asthma (8%), noise-induced hearing loss (7%), tumors (3%), psychiatric disorders (2%). Moreover, 136 FFW judgements were formulated, with some limitations/restrictions expressed. Finally, a relevant prevalence of some chronic non-occupational diseases was found. Conclusions: MWs in Italy may suffer from OH inequalities. Qualified public OH professionals and occupational physicians in workplaces should have a proactive role to concretely meet MWs’ health needs. MDPI 2019-08-21 2019-09 /pmc/articles/PMC6747097/ /pubmed/31438461 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16173007 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Arici, Cecilia Tamhid, Tishad Porru, Stefano Migration, Work, and Health: Lessons Learned from a Clinical Case Series in a Northern Italy Public Hospital |
title | Migration, Work, and Health: Lessons Learned from a Clinical Case Series in a Northern Italy Public Hospital |
title_full | Migration, Work, and Health: Lessons Learned from a Clinical Case Series in a Northern Italy Public Hospital |
title_fullStr | Migration, Work, and Health: Lessons Learned from a Clinical Case Series in a Northern Italy Public Hospital |
title_full_unstemmed | Migration, Work, and Health: Lessons Learned from a Clinical Case Series in a Northern Italy Public Hospital |
title_short | Migration, Work, and Health: Lessons Learned from a Clinical Case Series in a Northern Italy Public Hospital |
title_sort | migration, work, and health: lessons learned from a clinical case series in a northern italy public hospital |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6747097/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31438461 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16173007 |
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