Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: May 7, 2023
Date Accepted: May 30, 2023
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Effects of Interventions to Prevent Work-related Asthma, Allergy and other Hypersensitivity Reactions in Norwegian Salmon Industry Workers (SHInE) - Protocol for a Pragmatic Allocated Intervention Trial and Related Substudies
ABSTRACT
Background:
Workers in the salmon processing industry have an increased risk of developing respiratory diseases and other hypersensitivity responses due to occupational exposure to bioaerosols containing fish proteins and microorganisms, and related allergens. Little is known about effective measures to reduce bioaerosol exposure and about the extent of skin complaints among workers. In addition, while identification of risk factors is a core activity in disease prevention strategies, there is increasing interest in health promoting factors, which is an understudied area in the salmon processing industry.
Objective:
The overall aim of this ongoing study is to generate knowledge that can be used in tailored prevention of development or chronification of respiratory diseases, skin reactions, protein contact dermatitis and allergy among salmon processing workers. The main objective is to identify effective methods to reduce bioaerosol exposure. Further objectives are to identify and characterize clinically relevant exposure agents, to identify determinants of exposure, measure prevalence of work-related symptoms and disease and to identify health promoting factors of the psychosocial work environment.
Methods:
Data are collected during field studies in 9 salmon processing plants along the Norwegian coastline. Data collection comprises exposure measurements, health examinations and questionnaires. A wide range of laboratory analysis will be used for further analysis and characterization of exposure agents. Suitable statistical analysis will be applied for the various outcomes of this comprehensive study.
Results:
Data collection started in September 2021 and was anticipated to be completed by March 2023, but was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Baseline data from all 9 plants included 673 participants for the health examinations and a total of 869 personal exposure measurements. 740 workers answered the study’s main questionnaire on demographics, job characteristics, lifestyle, health and health promoting factors. Follow-up data collection is not completed yet.
Conclusions:
This study will contribute to filling knowledge gaps concerning salmon workers’ work environment. This includes effective workplace measures for bioaerosol exposure reduction, increased knowledge on hypersensitivity, allergy, respiratory and dermal health, as well as health-promoting workplace factors. Together this will give a basis for improving the work environment, preventing occupational health-related diseases and developing occupational exposure limits, which in turn will benefit employees, employers, occupational health services, researchers, clinicians, decision makers and other stakeholders. Clinical Trial: Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05039229
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