Occupational skin diseases among seafood workers exposure to long-term wet and cold environments in some Southern provinces, Vietnam

Abstract

To determine the prevalence of occupational skin disease (OCD) among seafood workers due to long-term exposure to wet and cold environments in some Southern provinces, we conducted a cross-sectional study on 1,116 seafood workers. We used secondary data from the target program Vocational Education - Employment and Occupational Safety 2017- 2018 conducted by the HCMC Institute of Public Health in 2018 on seafood companies in Ba Ria - Vung Tau, An Giang, Kien Giang and Soc Trang provinces. Most workers in the study were between 20 and 39 years old (75%). The rate of OCD due to long-term exposure to wet and cold environments is 22.94%. Contact dermatitis and paronychia are the two most common clinical forms (accounting for 45.45% and 46.91% respectively). The other two clinical forms are frostbite and Raynaud’s syndrome accounted for smaller proportion (6.91% and 0.73% respectively). There is a relationship between OCD and age – the
diseases tend to be more common among older workers. The percentage of OCD is very high among seafood workers. Therefore, we need to pay attention to this issue through occupational medical examinations.