OccIDEAS: An Innovative Tool to Assess Past Asbestos Exposure in the Australian Mesothelioma Registry

Our plain-English summary of OccIDEAS: An Innovative Tool to Assess Past Asbestos Exposure in the Australian Mesothelioma Registry, by E. Macfarlane, G. Benke, M.R. Sim, et al (Safety and Health at Work, 2012).

The study

• Authors: E. Macfarlane, G. Benke, M.R. Sim, L. Fritschi
• Journal: Safety and Health at Work
• Published: 2012;3(1):71-6
• Cited by: 15 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

Malignant mesothelioma is an uncommon but rapidly fatal disease for which the principal aetiological agent is exposure to asbestos. Mesothelioma is of particular significance in Australia where asbestos use was very widespread from the 1950s until the 1980s. Exposure to asbestos includes occupational exposure associated with working with asbestos or in workplaces where asbestos is used and also 'take-home' exposure of family members of asbestos exposed workers. Asbestos exposure may also be non-occupational, occurring as a consequence of using asbestos products in non-occupational contexts and passive exposure is also possible, such as exposure to asbestos products in the built environment or proximity to an environmental source of exposure, for example an asbestos production plant. The extremely long latency period for this disease makes exposure assessment problematic in the context of a mesothelioma registry. OccIDEAS, a recently developed online tool for retrospective exposure assessment, has been adapted for use in the Australian Mesothelioma Registry (AMR) to enable systematic retrospective exposure assessment of consenting cases. Twelve occupational questionnaire modules and one non-occupational module have been developed for the AMR, which form the basis of structured interviews using OccIDEAS, which also stores collected data and provides a framework for generating metrics of exposure.

In plain English

This article was a commentary, not a study of patients. The authors gave an overview of asbestos exposure in Australia. They described how OccIDEAS, an online tool for assessing past exposure, was being adapted for the Australian Mesothelioma Registry. Data collection from consenting mesothelioma cases had two phases: a postal questionnaire, then a structured telephone interview using OccIDEAS, which began in early 2011. Twelve job-specific question modules were developed, covering jobs such as asbestos mining and milling, asbestos removal, insulation, trades, textile work, and land and water transport. One environmental module was given to every participant. It asked about living in a house clad with asbestos cement, home renovation, servicing brakes or clutches, visiting asbestos mining towns, and living with someone who came home with dusty clothing. Participants were not asked to rate their own exposure. Instead, programmed rules turned answers about tasks and conditions into estimates of exposure probability, intensity and frequency, and experts could review those estimates. Most modules took about 1-5 minutes. The paper reported no exposure results. The authors concluded that OccIDEAS enabled rigorous exposure data collection without long interviews.

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: Commentary describing an exposure assessment tool and its adaptation for a registry; no participant data reported
• Who was studied: No study population was analysed. The tool is intended for consenting mesothelioma cases in the Australian Mesothelioma Registry; no numbers of cases are given.
• Exposure: Asbestos exposure from occupational, 'take-home' (family) and environmental (non-occupational) sources, assessed through 12 occupational job-specific modules and one environmental module
• Main results:
  • Registry exposure data collection had two phases: a postal questionnaire covering job, school and residential histories, followed by a structured telephone interview using OccIDEAS, which began in early 2011
  • OccIDEAS interviews of consenting registry cases began in early 2011
  • Twelve occupational job-specific modules were developed, including asbestos mining/milling, asbestos removalists, insulators, trades, textile worker, land transport and water transport, together with one environmental module
  • The environmental module was given to all participants regardless of job history. It asked about living in a house clad with asbestos cement, home renovation, servicing automotive brakes or clutches, visits to asbestos mining towns, and living with someone who came home with dusty clothing
  • Participants were not asked to judge their own level of asbestos exposure. Instead, rules derived exposure probability, intensity and frequency from answers about tasks and conditions, and manual expert review was possible
  • Most job-specific modules took about 1-5 minutes to give, and no more than 4-6 modules were assigned per participant
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that OccIDEAS enables exposure data to be collected rigorously without long interviews, and that its automated assessments and flexibility suit a long-term registry

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestos Exposure, Mesothelioma, Malignant Mesothelioma, Occupational Exposure, Latency.

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