Role of Medical Surveillance in Detecting Baker’s Asthma in Taif city, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to assess the role of work related symptoms and medical surveillance in detecting occupational baker's asthma, assess incidence of baker's asthma in Taif city in Saudi Arabia, and detect the underlying causes such as hazards or exposures to any harmful materials.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in the duration between November 2016 and May 2017. This study included all bakery workers in Taif city in Saudi Arabia. The collected data included subjects' age, diagnosis with baker's asthma, exposure to flour dust, smoking status, eye symptoms, and respiratory tract symptoms. The study was limited by the small sample size.Results: A total of 47 subjects were recruited in this study. The mean ± SD age was 37.4 ± 8.7 years. The median (IQR) years of exposure to flour dust was 6 (9) years. The majority of subjects (n= 40, 85.1%) were non-smokers. only 2 subjects (4.3%) reported experiencing eye symptoms, while 4 subjects (8.5%) reported experiencing upper respiratory tract symptoms. In this sample population, none of the subjects were diagnosed with baker's asthma. Upper respiratory tract symptoms were found to be significantly more prevalent (p=0.004) in subjects with severe exposure of flour dust (100%), than subjects with minimal (7.1%) and moderate exposure (5.6%). No statistically significant association was found between upper respiratory tract symptoms and each of smoking, eye symptoms, age, and years of exposure to flour dust. Conclusion:Due to sample size limitations, we encourage conducting further studies to investigate baker's asthma in Saudi Arabia.