Patient Education and Counseling 55 (2004) 136–141 Targeting pupils at risk of occupational asthma Yves Coppieters ∗ , Danielle Piette Health Promotion & Education Unit, School of Public Health, Free University of Brussels (ULB), Route de Lennik 808, CP 596, 1070 Brussels, Belgium Received 28 April 2003; received in revised form 30 July 2003; accepted 12 August 2003 Abstract A cross-sectional study was carried out in pupils attending the last training year from three school sections with high risks of occupational asthma (hairdressing, wood’s profession, bakery) and in two groups with lower risks (butcher, salesmen). The analysis concerns a represen- tative sample of 533 pupils in the French-speaking Community of Belgium. Among them, 62.0% in high risk professions of occupational asthma (OA) are conscious of occupational risks related to their work, as were 52.1% of those in professions less at risk (P < 0.05). The difference is also significant when asthma is mentioned as a health problem: 12.6% of the bakers and 14.1% of the hairdressers declared having suffered from asthma and 21.4% of the bakers and 26.7% of the hairdressers reckoned having had wheezing in their chest over the last 12 months. These results report preliminary signs of asthma in pupils before entering in their active life with risk of OA. Primary prevention should include information and redirecting pupils at risk of developing or increasing the disease in their working environment. © 2003 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Occupational asthma; Risk; Information; Respiratory symptoms; Pupils 1. Introduction In developed countries, there has been a disturbing steady increase in the morbidity of occupational asthma (OA) over the last 20 years [1]. OA is one of the most frequent work-related diseases and may represent between 2 and 6% of all cases of asthma [2]. The incidence and prevalence of OA have been extensively studied in industrial settings and specialised clinics. OA is defined as asthma causally and specifically related to exposure to inhaled chemical, physical, and microbiological agents in the form of dust, fumes, gases, and vapours. Individuals with pre-existing or concurrent asthma may become sensitised to an agent in the workplace and may be at increased risk of developing sensitisation to some occupational exposures [3]. The high figures of OA world-wide necessitate the intensification of appropriate primary, secondary, and tertiary preventive measures [4]. Primary prevention by reducing risk factors is of utmost importance in terms of reduction of morbidity due to OA [5] and includes elimination of the agent from the workplace by its substitution or by process change. However, the problem of OA can also be studied as a com- munity problem [6] where the knowledge of OA by young people and their awareness of occupational risks are taken ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: yves.coppieters@ulb.ac.be (Y. Coppieters). into account for planning prevention. Understanding the perception of risk taken by adolescents trained for jobs at risk of OA is essential for health professionals to determine appropriate interventions. The objective of this study is to assess pupils knowledge on OA, their occupational risk awareness and to estimate the prevalence of respiratory symptoms in pupils at the end of their vocational training in three groups with high risk of OA (bakers, hairdressers and wood workers) and in two groups with a lesser risk (butchers and salesmen). 2. Materials and methods A preliminary qualitative and quantitative study was per- formed in order to adopt and validate (test–retest) exist- ing scales to measure the different concepts. Fifteen fo- cus groups were carried out to evaluate the awareness of the occupational risk by teenagers and to assess the con- tent of the following variables: types of knowledge, attitude, value, beliefs, and intention. Following the first observation that pupils in the higher occupational risk sections do not identify their profession as being at risk of developing an occupational disease [7], we carried out in April 2000 a cross-sectional study in three groups with high risk of OA (hairdressers, wood’s workers and bakers) and in two groups at lower risk (butchers, shop assistants) [8]. 0738-3991/$ – see front matter © 2003 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.pec.2003.08.009