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Occupational Medicine Advance Access published online on January 2, 2009
Occupational Medicine, doi:10.1093/occmed/kqn165
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Audit of quality of diagnostic procedures for occupational asthma

Riitta Sauni1,2, Paula Kauppi3, Eva Helaskoski3, Pauliina Virtema1 and Jos Verbeek4

1 Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Tampere, Finland
2 Clinic of Occupational Medicine, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland
3 Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland
4 Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Kuopio, Finland

Background Previous studies have reported deficiencies in the quality of the diagnosis of occupational asthma. A low quality of diagnostic procedures means that the occupational cause of asthma is less likely to be revealed.

Aim To assess the current quality of the diagnosis of occupational asthma before referral to a specialist occupational medicine centre.

Methods The quality of diagnostic procedures was assessed by reviewing the files of 150 patients who were referred to the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in 2003 with a suspicion of an occupational cause of their asthma. The quality indicators used were assessment of workplace exposures, spirometric studies, bronchodilator response, serial workplace measurements of peak expiratory flow (PEF) and the time since first symptoms to the final diagnosis. For each indicator, criteria to differentiate between sufficient and insufficient care were developed.

Results Exposure assessments, spirometric studies and bronchodilator responses were performed in 92, 87 and 79% of cases in the total study group, respectively. Workplace measurements of PEF had been performed in 51% of the cases, and the quality of measurements was sufficient in 52%. Workplace exposures had been assessed significantly more often in occupational health care than in other health care units. The median time from the beginning of symptoms to the final diagnosis was 3.2 years.

Conclusion Although the diagnostic procedures were mostly of sufficient quality, the performance of serial measurements of PEF at the workplace and the time to diagnosis should be substantially improved.

Keywords      Occupational asthma; occupational health services; peak expiratory flow measurements; quality of diagnosis

Correspondence to: Riitta Sauni, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, PO Box 486, 33101 Tampere, Finland. Tel: +358 30 474 8650; fax: +358 30 474 8605; e-mail: riitta.sauni{at}ttl.fi


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