A Study on the Relationship between Firefighters Disease and Health Status

Abstract

Considering the age and longer service time of firefighters who have a substantial amount of field activities, they are exposed to chemical and biological risk factors, physical and mental stress, diverse and complex work environments, and repetitive motions, which may increase the rates of gastrointestinal disorders, musculoskeletal diseases, cancers, and cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, based on the regular specific health examination results for 215 firefighters who were working in the N fire department located in B metropolitan city, an analysis of occupational diseases was performed, which showed that the most common chronic disease was diabetes mellitus (28.8%), followed by hyperlipidemia (27.9%) and thoracic diseases (19.5%). This trend appears to be consistent with the incidence rates reported in a representative study of adult diseases in Korea. In addition, it was found that 82 officers maintained healthy states, while those who needed further medical inspection and those with clinical symptoms were more frequently exposed to disease when they were older and had longer service time; moreover, the fire captain and lieutenant had higher rates of disease.

Comparison of the risks of occupational diseases, avoidable hospitalization, and all-cause deaths between firefighters and non-firefighters: A cohort study using national health insurance claims data

“…Furthermore, in a study on firefighters in a Busan metropolitan city, 22.8% of firefighters were found to have diabetes while 10.7% had hypertension. Accordingly, the health of firefighters was not ideal ( 9 ), especially for those with diabetes and hypertension, which are ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs) in which unnecessary hospitalization can be avoided through timely and effective outpatient care ( 10 ). The experience of avoidable hospitalization (AH) is closely related to the quality of primary care and medical accessibility ( 10 , 11 ).…”