Alterations in psychosocial health of people affected by asbestos poisoning

Our plain-English summary of Alterations in psychosocial health of people affected by asbestos poisoning, by M. Clemente, A. Reig-Botella, J.C. Prados (Revista de Saúde Pública, 2015).

The study

• Authors: M. Clemente, A. Reig-Botella, J.C. Prados
• Journal: Revista de Saúde Pública
• Published: 2015;49:24
• Language: Spanish
• Cited by: 4 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the state of psychosocial and mental health of professionals affected by asbestos.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 110 professionals working in the Ferrolterra region of Spain, who were affected by asbestos poisoning. This group was compared with a group of 70 shipyard workers with no manifestation of work-related diseases. All the participants were male with a mean age of 67 years. This study was conducted in 2013, between January and June, and used the SCL-90 questionnaire by Derogatis as its primary measure for research. This questionnaire consists of 9 variables that measure psychosomatic symptoms. In addition, an overall index of psychosomatic gravity was calculated. The participants were also asked two questions concerning their overall perception of feeling good. Data were analyzed by ANOVA and logistic regression.

Results: Participants affected by asbestos poisoning showed high occurrence rates of psychological health variables such as somatization, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, psychoticism, and global severity index.

Conclusions: Social interaction as a differentiating factor between workers affected by work-related chronic syndromes as compared to healthy participants will possibly aid in the development of intervention programs by improving the social network of affected individuals.

In plain English

This cross-sectional survey was carried out in 2013 at the Navantia and Astano shipyard factories in the Ferrolterra region of Spain. It compared 110 men with chronic respiratory diseases caused by asbestos with 70 men of the same age group who had no asbestos-related disease. The authors stated that both groups had been equally exposed to asbestos. No fiber types were named. Participants completed the Spanish version of the SCL-90 symptom questionnaire and answered questions about their overall energy levels. On average, the affected men scored higher than the comparison group on the symptom scales, for example depression (27.9 versus 16.5) and anxiety (19.8 versus 11.9), and they reported lower energy (2.7 versus 3.3). Each group difference was listed with a significance of 0.001. In a logistic regression of the nine symptom scales, interpersonal sensitivity was the only one that significantly distinguished the groups. By the end of the survey, about 15.0% of the affected men had died. The authors described their sample as non-probabilistic. They concluded that treating social interaction as a distinguishing factor will allow intervention programs that foster affected workers' social networks.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: cross-sectional survey comparing an asbestos-affected group with an unaffected group of exposed workers
• Who was studied: 180 men in Ferrolterra, Spain (Navantia and Astano factories), surveyed in 2013: 110 chronic patients with respiratory diseases caused by asbestos (contacted through patient associations) and 70 healthy shipyard workers of the same age group; the article's abstract gives a mean age of 67 years
• Exposure: occupational asbestos exposure in shipyard work; the authors state both groups were equally exposed; fiber types and doses were not reported. Affected participants were classified radiologically by the ILO pneumoconiosis system, and asbestosis was verified by stated diagnostic criteria
• Main results:
  • Mean somatization score: control 17.7, affected 28.6
  • Mean depression score: control 16.5, affected 27.9
  • Mean anxiety score: control 11.9, affected 19.8
  • Mean global energy level: control 3.3, affected 2.7
  • All study variables differed significantly between groups by ANOVA (each listed with significance 0.001 in Table 2)
  • The logistic regression correctly classified 77.5% of the control group and 80.0% of affected participants
  • The logistic regression correctly classified 78.9% of all participants
  • In the regression, only interpersonal sensitivity was significant (beta -0.368, significance 0.013); the other variables were not significant at the 5% level
  • About 15.0% of the affected participants had died by the end of the survey; the non-affected participants survived
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that considering social interaction as a differentiating factor between affected and unaffected workers will allow development of intervention programs based on fostering the social network of affected individuals
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors describe the sample as incidental and non-probabilistic
  • The authors note that the control group was a convenience sample and that the affected group included only those alive at the time of the survey

Related studies

• Medically reported work-related ill-health in the UK agricultural sector — S.J. Stocks, S. Turner, et al. (2010)
• Functional exercise capacity and health-related quality of life in people with asbestos related pleural disease: an observational study — M.T. Dale, Z.J. McKeough, et al. (2013)
• The impact of individual quality of life assessment on psychosocial attention in patients with chest malignancies: a randomized study — M. Nicklasson, M.L. Elfström, et al. (2013)
• Psychosocial responses associated with perceived risk of cancer in an African-American community — G.B. Gerbi, T. Habtemariam, et al. (2011)
• Managing malignant pleural mesothelioma: experience and perceptions of health care professionals caring for people with mesothelioma — A. Warby, H.M. Dhillon, et al. (2019)
• The Status of Occupational Burnout and Its Influence on the Psychological Health of Factory Workers and Miners in Wulumuqi, China — Y. Lu, Z. Zhang, et al. (2020)

Browse return to medical research.