Proportions distribution of pneumoconiosis stages in China: a study based on a meta-analysis and field investigation

Abstract

Occupational pneumoconiosis is the most serious work-related disease in China. In this paper, pneumoconiosis stages distribution was obtained to study the stages severity of occupational pneumoconiosis patients in China. A meta-analysis was conducted among screening the published literature on the pneumoconiosis epidemiology in China by Stata 15.0. Moreover, a field survey was conducted on 510 migrant workers suffering from pneumoconiosis in four provinces of China, and the results were analyzed by simple linear analysis and ordinal logistic regression analysis. The stage I, II and III pneumoconiosis accounted for 0.71, 0.21, 0.08, respectively, by the results of meta-analysis. The publication bias of these articles is not obvious based on the Egger’s test and funnel plots. There was no significant linear correlation between the distribution of pneumoconiosis stages and the economic status and medical conditions in this study. Migrant workers pneumoconiosis stage I, II and III accounted for 0.14, 0.2, 0.66 respectively, which was significantly correlated with length of work and provinces. In China, migrant workers lack effective occupational health protection so that they have higher occupational health risks than urban workers. Therefore, occupational health protection for migrant workers in the occupational health management system needs to be strengthened.

Keywords:

• Pooled rate
• pneumoconiosis stages
• migrant workers
• occupational health

Acknowledgements

Chinese occupational health experts who have conducted extensive research and reports on the epidemiology of pneumoconiosis to make this study the base material for meta-analysis should be appreciated. In addition, this research was supported through Love Save Pneumoconiosis Foundation in China, a charity foundation devoted to helping and treating migrant workers suffering from pneumoconiosis.

Disclosure statement

None declared.

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its Appendix.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grant [No. 52074302] from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.