Assessment of the quality of life related to the health of workers in the aluminium industry with broncholuminal diseases

Introduction. Chronic occupational disease of the bronchopulmonary system can significantly impact the quality of life of patients. 

The aim of the study is to assess the quality of life associated with the health of workers with bronchopulmonary pathology in the aluminium industry. 

Materials and methods. The study involved 130 men with occupational pathology of the respiratory system (chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), bronchial asthma (BA), chronic non-obstructive bronchitis (CNOB) and a combination of COPD + BA) aged 43 to 72 years (mean age 59.7 ± 8.4 years). The comparison group included 84 men — residents of the Irkutsk region (the average age was 50.2 ± 7.2 years), comparable with patients in social conditions and not in contact with harmful production factors. The health-related quality of life (HRQL) was assessed according to the Russified modification of the SF-36 method, respiratory function using spirometry. Statistical processing of the results was carried out using the software package “Statistica 6.0”. 

Results. Assessment of the quality of life of patients with occupational chronic bronchopulmonary pathology revealed low values of assessments on all scales of HRQL, both in the group as a whole (p < 0.05) and depending on the nosological form (p < 0.001). Taking into account the severity of spirometric data, it was found that in grade III — the intensity of pain (36 (22-41) points) was more pronounced than in groups I (41 (41-55) points) and II (41 (22-42) ) points) degrees of severity. 

Conclusion. The data obtained indicate that bronchopulmonary pathology harms the HRQL, determining the low total physical and mental health (33.0 ± 3.9 and 45.1 ± 4.8 points, respectively), causing low physical and mental well-being can be an obstacle to normal social functioning.

Contribution:

Beigel E.A. — concept and design of the study, collection and processing of material, statistical processing, writing a text, responsibility for the integrity of all parts of the article;

Katamanova E.V., Kazakova P.V. — the concept and design of the study, collection and processing of material, statistical processing, writing a text, editing;

Shayakhmetov S.F. — collection and processing of material, editing.

All authors — approval of the final version of the article.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgement. This work was carried out within the framework of state assignment.

Received: October 18, 2021 / Accepted: November 25, 2021 / Published: December 30, 2021