Background: Occupational asthma (OA) is described as the most common respiratory disease in industrialized countries. A female predominance characterizes many populations of asthmatic workers. Differences in occupational exposures by gender as well as hormonal variations could affect OA in women.
Purpose: To identify the socio-occupational and medical characteristics of OA in women compared to men and to investigate a possible hormonal influence on OA in women.
Material and methods: This is a retrospective study, based on medical records of out patients of the Department of Occupational Medicine during the period between 1st January 2009 and 30 June 2016 for OA completed by a phone call to collect missing data.
Results: Over 222 cases of OA, a female predominance was noted (60.81%), which was predominantly in the textile sector (61.5%). Clinically, men had more exercise dyspnea and wheezing, whereas the association with rhinitis was significantly greater in women. The majority of women with asthma had irregular menstrual cycles (46.2%), they were multiparous in 54%, menopaused in 13% of cases with a mean age of menarche of 12±1.65 years. A worsening of OA was noted in 58% of women during their perimenstrual period, 75% during pregnancy and 14% of women when taking hormonal contraceptives. In asthmatic women, only the presence of non-specific bronchial hyperreactivity was significantly associated with menarche age (P=0.007).
Conclusion: Differences between men and women in OA with variability of symptoms during female genital life have been identified. Further studies to personalized care strategies for women need to be undertaken.
Keywords: Asthme professionnel; Epidemiology; Femme; Hormone influence; Influence hormonale; Occupational asthma; Woman; Épidémiologie.
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