Occupational health check-ups and health-promoting programs and asthma
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Occupational health check-ups and healthpromoting programs and asthma Riina Hakola1* , Timo Leino2, Ritva Luukkonen2 and Paula Kauppi3
Abstract Background: The focus in occupational health check-ups is in work and health, but they offer also a possibility to assess health behavior and give guidance e.g. on weight control. We wanted to study whether having occupational health checks-up, receiving physicians’ advice to change health behavior or participation in health promotion programs had an effect on obesity in a five-year follow-up from 1998 to 2003 in asthmatic and non-asthmatic workers. Methods: Altogether 23,220 individuals aged 20–54 years were picked up from a randomized Finnish population sample. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to calculate the risk for obesity in 2003. The variables used in the modelling were gender, age, smoking, asthma, depression, and physical workload. Results: Both asthmatic and non-asthmatic workers gained weight during the follow-up. Of the asthmatics 48 and 47% of the non-asthmatics had occupational health-check-up in the last 5 years. Of the asthmatics 18 and 14% of the non-asthmatics had received physician’s advice to change their health behavior (p < 0.001). Associated factors for obesity (BMI > 30) in 2003 were gender (men OR 1.19), older age (OR 1.25), smoking (OR 1.07) or depression (OR 1.44). Conclusions: Results show that having occupational health checks-up or receiving physicians’ advice to change health behavior or participation in health promotion programs did not stop gain of weight during a five-year follow-up. Asthmatic workers did not differ from non-asthmatics. Male gender, older age, smoking, and depression were associated with obesity but not the physical workload. Keywords: Asthma, Depression, Health-promoting/behavior, Obesity, Smoking, Physical workload
Background Finland has universal social security scheme. Preventive services are provided by health centers, child health clinics, school health services, student health care and occupational health services. Employers are responsible for providing employees with preventive health care and voluntarily also medical care. The Finnish working-age population (2.6 million) is under health surveillance for both public health and occupational health purposes. The occupational health service carries out specific * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, PO Box 40, 00014 Helsinki, Finland Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
health examinations of the working population divided into pre-employment, special examinations for workers in hazardous jobs, when returning to work after a long sick leave, for the assessment of work-ability, and after retirement from certain hazardous jobs according to the Act on Occupational Health Services. Annually approximately 1 million health examinations are done in occupational health services [1]. The focus in examinations is in wor
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