Corporate programs for preventing health disorders among workers employed at adverse productions as a tool for occupational risk management

Abstract

Given the existing social and economic conditions, a true priority in activities performed by specialists in occupational medicine and labor protection is to preserve workers health and to prolong periods of their working capability. Experience in cooperating with employers who were interested in preserving their highly qualified personnel revealed that implementation of corporate prevention programs at an enterprise allowed reducing work-related and occupational health risks for workers. Our research goal was to assess efficiency of a corporate prevention program bearing in mind managing occupational and work-related risks. Data and methods. Our test group included 221 male workers employed at chemical productions in Perm (aged 55-40, average working experience amounted to 19.2 ± 7.8 years): our reference group was made up of 79 office workers employed at the same enterprises (aged 55-39, average working experience amounted to 21.2 ± 7.6). The research involved analyzing result of specific assessment of working conditions; medical documentation analysis; clinical, laboratory, and instrumental research; mathematical processing of all obtained data with creating predictive evolution models of occupational risks. Results. A priori occupational risks for workers from the test group were high (intolerable) and average (significant); risks for workers from the reference group were small and negligible. An assessment of a cause-and-affect relation between work and health disorders revealed that AH (EF=66 %) and respiratory organs diseases (EF=51 %) were to a great extent work-related. Basic pathogenetic mechanisms of circulatory system diseases and respiratory organs diseases were determined as per research results; they were syndromes of endothelial dysfunction, sub-clinic inflammation, and oxidative stress; given that, we developed a corporate prevention program aimed at preventing health disorders among workers. Results of the program implementation revealed that there was an authentic decrease in number of workers who had high blood pressure at the moment of a periodical medical examination (38 % prior to the program implementation and 11 % after it had been implemented, p < 0.05); there was 1.8 times decrease in number of workers who were not admitted to perform specific work tasks due to detected circulatory system diseases (14 workers prior the program implementation and 8 workers after it had been implemented, p < 0.05) and practically 3 times decrease in number of workers who were not admitted due to respiratory organs diseases (32 workers prior the program implementation and 11 workers after it had been implemented, p < 0.05); there was also a decrease in number of workers who applied for medical aid.