Prospective study of asbestos-related diseases incidence cases in primary health care in an area of Barcelona province

Our plain-English summary of Prospective study of asbestos-related diseases incidence cases in primary health care in an area of Barcelona province, by M. Rosell-Murphy, R. Abós-Herràndiz, J. Tarrés, et al (BMC Public Health, 2010).

The study

• Authors: M. Rosell-Murphy, R. Abós-Herràndiz, J. Tarrés, X. Martínez-Artés, I. García-Allas, I. Krier, G. Cantarell, M. Gallego, R. Orriols, C. Albertí
• Journal: BMC Public Health
• Published: 2010;10:203
• Cited by: 7 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

Background: Asbestos related diseases include a number of conditions due to inhalation of asbestos fibres at work, at home or in the environment, such as pleural mesothelioma, asbestosis and calcified pleural plaques. Few epidemiological studies have established the incidence of asbestos related diseases in our area. The present proposal is based on a retrospective study externally funded in 2005 that is currently taking place in the same area and largely carried out by the same research team.The aim of the study is to achieve a comprehensive and coordinated detection of all new cases of Asbestos Related Diseases presenting to primary care practitioners.

Methods/design: This is a multicentre, multidisciplinary and pluri-institutional prospective study.Setting12 municipalities in the Barcelona province within the catchment area of the health facilities that participate in the study.SampleThis is a population based study, of all patients presenting with diseases caused by asbestos in the study area.MeasurementsA clinical and epidemiological questionnaire will be filled in by the trained researchers after interviewing the patients and examining their clinical reports.

Discussion: Data on the incidence of the different Asbestos Related Diseases in this area will be obtained and the most plausible exposure source and space-time-patient profile will be described. The study will also improve the standardization of patient management, the coordination between health care institutions and the development of preventive activities related with asbestos exposure and disease.

In plain English

This article is a study protocol: it described a planned prospective study and reported no results. The authors aimed to find every new case of asbestos-related disease first diagnosed between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2008 among residents of 12 municipalities in Barcelona province (estimated population 350,000). The area included Cerdanyola del Vallès, where one of the larger fibrocement plants in Spain operated from 1907 until 1997. The study covered 10 conditions, among them pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma, asbestos-related pulmonary carcinoma, asbestosis and pleural plaques. General practitioners were to refer suspected cases to a respiratory specialist for confirmation. Trained researchers were then to interview patients or relatives about exposure source (work, family, living nearby), smoking and symptoms. The authors planned to calculate incidence and mortality rates, measure how often these diseases go unreported as work-related or on death certificates, and look for clusters of cases in Cerdanyola del Vallès. They named as limitations the long latency between exposure and disease, the lack of an exact measure of asbestos exposure, and memory bias.

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: Study protocol for a multicentre, prospective, population-based study of new (incident) cases of asbestos-related disease detected through primary care; no results reported
• Who was studied: Residents of 12 municipalities in Barcelona province served by the participating primary care teams and one referral hospital (Consorci Hospitalari Parc Taulí), estimated population 350,000. Cases were people first diagnosed with one of 10 asbestos-related diseases from 1/1/2006 to 31/12/2008.
• Exposure: Asbestos exposure from work (including the Cerdanyola asbestos cement plant and other plants), family or household contact, living nearby (vicinity), or other sources. No fiber type is specified for the study. One of the larger fibrocement plants in Spain operated in Cerdanyola del Vallès from 1907 until 1997.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors stated that the study would produce data on the incidence of the different asbestos-related diseases in the area and describe the most plausible exposure source and the space-time-patient profile; as a protocol, it reached no findings.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Asbestos-related disease is not a common descriptor in reported illness records nor a common certified cause of death, and it is underreported as a work-related disease.
  • Information quality may be limited by the long latency between exposure and disease, the lack of an exact measure of asbestos exposure, memory bias of patients or relatives, and differing quality across information sources.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Asbestosis.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Pleural Mesothelioma, Pleural Plaques, Asbestos Exposure.

Related studies

• Pleural mesothelioma in relation to meteorological conditions and residential distance from an industrial source of asbestos — J. Tarrés, C. Albertí, et al. (2013)
• Malignant asbestos-related disease in a population exposed to asbestos — R. Orriols, J. Tarrés, et al. (2020)
• Asbestosis in the industries of the Barcelona area — F. Segarra, M.B. Monte, et al. (1980)
• Incidence of Cancer and Asbestos-Related Diseases among Residents Living near Abandoned Asbestos Mines in South Korea: A Retrospective Cohort Study Using National Health Insurance Database — K. Kwak, K.E. Zoh, et al. (2021)
• Knowledge and awareness of asbestos risk among General Practitioners: Validation of a questionnaire in an area with a high incidence of asbestos-related diseases — M. Bertolotti, M. Tamburro, et al. (2025)
• Risk Factors of Mortality from All Asbestos-Related Diseases: A Competing Risk Analysis — R. Abós-Herràndiz, T. Rodriguez-Blanco, et al. (2017)

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