Asthma and Allergies

Prevention of Occupational Asthma: Introduction

This Web site is designed as a resource for individuals interested in the prevention of occupational asthma (OA). This introductory page will guide you through the information that can be found on the site.

Background

Prevention is not a single entity, and it is often divided into three categories: primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention.

“Primary prevention is [the] protection of health by personal and communal efforts, such as enhancing nutritional status, immunizing against communicable diseases, and eliminating environmental risks, such as contaminated water supplies.” (1)
Stage: susceptibility (2)

“Secondary prevention is [the] set of measures available to individuals and communities for the early detection and prompt intervention to control disease and minimize disability, e.g., by the use of screening programs.” (1)
Stage: early disease, i.e. pre-clinical and clinical stages (2)

“Tertiary prevention consists of measures aimed at softening the impact of long-term disease and disability by eliminating or reducing impairment, disability and handicap; minimizing suffering; and maximizing potential years or useful life” (1)
Stage: advanced disease or disability (2)

¹A Dictionary of Epidemiology. 4 ed. Oxford University Press, 2001.
²Mausner JS, Bahn AK. Epidemiology: An Introductory Text. Philadephia: W. B. Saunders Company, 1974.

Who will benefit from this Web site?

This site can be used by a variety of individuals. It is designed to provide a background to the work being conducted in the field of OA prevention. It will give occupational health researchers the ability to quickly identify gaps in current knowledge, to judge which interventions appear most effective and which should be examined for their use in additional studies, and to find basic information on study designs used in research on the prevention of OA. Additionally, policymakers will be able to quickly prioritize prevention research goals.

What can I find on this Web site?

This site consists of two sections: a text primer on the prevention of OA and a set of query tables with details about the studies described in the primer.

The primer contains information distilled from 109 articles by 80 authors, detailing 111 primary or secondary OA prevention activities, published from 1977-August 2007. It describes the current state of OA prevention work, and highlights gaps in research that need to be filled.

The query tables allow a user to view the studies through several different filters. Users interested in intervention research can view the studies categorized by the level of prevention, either primary or secondary, or by the type of intervention activity used in the study. Users interested in a particular type of agent can view the studies by molecular weight ( high, low, both), by the category of the agent, or by the specific type of agent.

See below for details on the studies available in the query tables.

Intervention Activity

High-Molecular-Weight Agents

Low-Molecular-Weight Agents

Both Molecular Weights

Review Articles

The references in this section are review articles that provide summaries of findings from existing studies. They are included as another source of information about the prevention of work-related asthma.

Cockroach Allergen Biology and Mitigation in the Indoor Environment. (Gore JC, Schal C. Annu Rev Entomol. 2007; 52:439-63.)

Prevention of Occupational Asthma in Ontario. (Tarlo SM. Can J Physiol Pharmacol. 2007 Jan; 85(1):167-72.)