Contact Allergy in Danish Healthcare Workers:A Retrospective Matched Case-control Study
In: Schwensen , J F , Menné , T , Sommerlund , M , Andersen , K E , Mortz , C G , Zachariae , C & Johansen , J D 2016 , ' Contact Allergy in Danish Healthcare Workers : A Retrospective Matched Case-control Study ' , Acta Dermato-Venereologica , vol. 96 , no. 2 , pp. 237-240 . https://doi.org/10.2340/00015555-2202
Contact dermatitis in healthcare workers is a world wide problem. We conducted a retrospective observational study of the patch-test results of 1,402 healthcare workers and 1,402 matched controls with contact dermatitis who were treated at 3 hospitals departments in Denmark between 2007 and 2014. The primary objective was to determine whether healthcare work was associated with contact allergy to thiuram mix, used as a rubber accelerator ib rubber protective gloves. Unadjusted univariate analyses revealed that healthcare work was significantly associated with occupational contact dermatitis and hand dermatitis. Contact allergy to thiuram mix was more common in healthcare workers, and was significantly associated with having occupational contact dermatitis, hand dermatitis and older age. In conclusion, we report here a potential problem of contact allergy to thiurams in healthcare workers with contact dermatitis. Legislative authorities may in the future focus on the use of rubber accelerators in, for example, protective gloves, which are widely used by healthcare professionals.