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Chaiear N ,
Rechaipichitkul W Material and Method: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study. The studied samples were a total of 315 workers in Sikhiu District, Nakhonrachasima province, Thailand. The interviewed questionnaire and chest x-ray were used to identified silicosis. The ILO classification by B-reader was applied and the grading equal or more than 1/1 is regarded as silicosis. In addition, sensitivity and specificity of the existing questionnaire were calculated and weight Kappa was used to interpret the correlation between Air-pneumo and NIOSH B readers.
Results: Among the of 315 workers, 55.9 % were male and the average age was 46 years old (range 17-75). Most of them (53.2%) work in the job described as cutting the stone in the mountain The symptoms of the respiratory system showed that 53 persons (16.8 %) had wheezing, 41 persons (13.0%) had dyspnea, 29 cases (9.2 %) had cough for more than two weeks. The prevalence of silicosis was 36.1% (80/315) and the majority of them worked in the stone cutting (33/80). Sensitivity of questionnaire was 21.2-27.5%. Specificity was 85.5-97.9 percent. Weighted Kappa was 0.6.
Conclusion: The prevalence of silicosis among workers was 36.1 percent. Weighted Kappa between film readers was 0.6. Criteria for diagnosis silicosis are history of being exposed to silica dust more than 2 years and abnormal chest x-ray reported as ILO profusion category equal or more than 1/1 by an NIOSH B reader. Criteria of silica dust exposure is: 1) cutting sand stone in the mountain or 2) cutting sandstone at home or 3) cracking stone at home or 4) living in sandstone cutting area; each must last for 8 hours per day.
Keywords: Silicosis, Stone Carving Workers,Air pneumo reader, B reader