Original scientific paper
Chronic degenerative diseases and workers' morbidity
M. Šarić
; Institut za medicinska istraživanja i medicinu rada JAZU, Zagreb
Z. Ribić
; Republički zavod za zastitu zdravlja SRH, Zagreb
Abstract
For the period 1962-1965 analysis was made of absences from work in industry in Croatia due to the following diseases: bronchial asthma (code 241), diabetes (260), psychoneuroses (310-318), arteriosclerotic and degenerative heart disorders (420), hypertension (444-445), chronic bronchitis (502), duodenal ulcus (540-542), and chronic rheumatism (722-727), with particular reference to muscular rheumatism (726). The absences and the number of days lost due to these diseases arc analysed by sex and industrial branches (branch 19 - codes 11-130). Data are presented as the rate of absences in relation to the number of the workers employed in the respective industrial branch. Although relating only to the causes of temporary work disability and a selected group of chronic degenerative diseases, these data indicate that the diseases analysed occupy an important place in the workers' morbidity. This specially relates to some of them, e. g. psychoneuroses, duodenal and gastric ulcers, chronic bronchitis, and hypertension. The group of chronic rheumatism also plays an important role, but most absences and days lost in this group are due to muscular chronic rheumatism. The data analysed have also revealed some comparatively stable trends regarding the ratio of absences and days lost to the number of the workers employed. Some of the diseases analysed, e. g. arteriosclerotic and degenerative heart disorders, chronic bronchitis, duodenal and gastric ulcers, chronic rheumatism, and particularly its muscular form, are on the whole more frequent in men. Psychoneuroses and hypertension are, as a rule, more frequent in women. So is bronchial asthma (in 1963 and 1965), while diabetes is slightly more frequent in men than in women. The analysis of absences due to the above mentioned diseases according to industrial branches also shows certain specificities which are presented in tabular form and discussed in more detail. The data presented and the summarized analyses made clearly show the importance of an organized fight against chronic diseases as a very serious cause of absences and disability in workers. In addition to the need for a more systematic study of the morbidity due to these diseases in the workers' populations, certain forms of health actions, specially that of the early detection of these diseases, have to be strongly emphasized. The etiology of chronic degenerative diseases connected with certain chronic progressive changes in individual organs and organic systems, is still unknown in a great many cases. Early diagnosis, by which systematic examinations of workers may play a very decisive role, still remains one o~ the principal, and most successful firms in the control and slowing down of the natural course of chronic degenerative diseases.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
176230
URI
Publication date:
19.6.1968.
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