Assessment of the respiratory system condition in tractor drivers of agricultural production

Objective. To assess the state of the respiratory system of agricultural tractor drivers for the further substantiation of target programs for bronchopulmonary diseases prevention.

Materials and methods. During the medical examination of 168 agricultural tractor drivers, a spirometric functional assessment of the respiratory system state was carried out, medical and social aspects of life, anthropometric data with calculation of body mass index, allergic anamnesis, and the presence of confirmed respiratory diseases were studied. The median age of agricultural machine operators was 51 [41; 58] years, the median professional experience was 20 [10; 32] years. A hygienic assessment of work-related factors was carried out using Statistica 10 software package for statistical analysis.

Results. It has been determined that harmful production factors that negatively affect the respiratory system are silicate-containing dust, harmful chemicals of hazard classes I–IV, and unfavorable microclimatic conditions. 15.2 % of workers are registered at the dispensary with a confirmed respiratory disease of non-occupational genesis. 11.2 % of workers not diagnosed with any respiratory disease complained on some symptoms of this system. Chronic bronchitis significantly more often occurs in people with abdominal obesity than in people without it (16.1 and 4.0 %, respectively, p = 0.039) and in patients with allergies than in those with negative allergic history (25.0 and 9.6 % respectively, p = 0.033). Impaired respiratory function according to spirometry results was revealed in 36.3 % of workers. Statistically significant differences in spirometric readings and the proportion of persons with deviations in the results of spirometry depending on age, abdominal obesity, and allergies were not revealed (p>0.05). Statistically significant lower values of FEV₁ and FEV₁/VC and the proportion of persons with deviations in spirometric readings in the group of smoking agricultural tractor drivers were determined.

Conclusions. A large incidence of non-occupational bronchopulmonary diseases associated with abdominal obesity and positive allergy history, and a considerable proportion of workers with external respiratory function disorder according to spirometry readings, associated with smoking status, were revealed. The lowest spirometric indicators and the largest proportion of people with abnormal spirometry results were registered in the youngest age group and among workers with little work experience. Taking into account the regional limitation of the study and the small number of workers examined, further study in this field is required.