In Colombia, coal miner pneumoconiosis is considered a public health problem due to its irreversibility, high cost on diagnosis, and lack of data related to its prevalence in the country. Therefore, a cross-sectional study was carried out in order to determine the prevalence of pneumoconiosis in underground coal mining workers in two regions of Colombia. The results showed a 35.9% prevalence of pneumoconiosis in the study group (42.3% in region 1 and 29.9% in region 2). An association was found between a radiologic diagnosis of pneumoconiosis and a medium risk level of exposure to carbon dust (OR: 2.901, 95% CI: 0.937, 8.982), medium size companies (OR: 2.301, 95% CI: 1.260-4.201), length of mining work greater than 25 years (OR: 3.222, 95% CI: 1.806-5.748), and a history of smoking for more than one year (OR: 1.479, 95% CI: 0.938-2.334). These results establish the need to generate an intervention strategy aimed at preventing the identified factors, as well as a timely identification and effective treatment of pneumoconiosis in coal miners, in which the commitment of the General Health and Social Security System and the workers compensation system is ensured.
Áreas temáticas de ASJC Scopus
- Bioquímica, genética y biología molecular (todo)
- Inmunología y microbiología (todo)
Palabras claves de autor
- Underground Coal Mining:
- Coal Dust