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Prevalence and Risk Factors for Farmer’s Lung in Greenhouse Farmers: An Epidemiological Study of 5,880 Farmers from Northeast China

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Abstract

The objectives of this epidemiological study were to evaluate the prevalence of farmer’s lung disease (FLD) and to explore the potential risk factors for FLD among Chinese greenhouse farmers. A total of 835 plastic film greenhouses, including 5,880 active farmers who engaged in crop cultivation or poultry farming, were randomly selected from the rural regions of Northeastern China. These farmers participated in the study by answering a medical questionnaire. 5,420 greenhouse farmers accepted and answered questionnaires in full (response rate, 92.18 %). Prevalence of FLD among these farmers was 5.7 % (308/5,420). Besides, a number of classic risk factors for FLD were identified, such as years of age, shorter time interval for re-entry greenhouse, ventilation frequency of greenhouse more than once per 4 h, the area of greenhouses greater than 30 m2 but without a ventilation facility, ventilation duration less than 30 min every time, greenhouse with height less than 1.8 m, greenhouse with humidity greater than 65 %, frequent exposure to moldy materials in greenhouse, living inside greenhouse, and et al. FLD is and will continue to be a real health problem for Chinese farmers. If these preventive measures are implemented, the prevalence of FLD in Chinese greenhouse farmers might be greatly reduced.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Grants from the National Science & Technology Pillar Program of China during the Eleventh Five-year Plan Period (No. 2007BAI24B04), the Project of Department of Science and Technology, Liaoning Province (No. 20132253030), and the Project of Shenyang Science and Technology Bureau (No. F12-277-1-71).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Respiratory Medicine, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, 4 East Chongshan Road, Shenyang, 110032, Liaoning, People’s Republic of China

    Shuo Liu, Donghong Chen, Lingling Wang, Mingjing Zhao, Xiaoyu He & Xiaoge Wang

  2. Department of Respiratory Medicine, The General Hospital of Fushun Mining Affairs Bureau, Fushun, 113008, Liaoning, People’s Republic of China

    Shuang Fu

  3. The Editorial Office, Chinese Journal of Practical Internal Medicine, Shenyang, 110001, Liaoning, People’s Republic of China

    Yangang Ren

  4. Department of Scientific Research, The General Hospital of Shenyang Military Command, Shenyang, 110015, Liaoning, People’s Republic of China

    Yibing Zhang

Authors
  1. Shuo Liu
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  2. Donghong Chen
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  3. Shuang Fu
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  4. Yangang Ren
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  5. Lingling Wang
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  6. Yibing Zhang
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  7. Mingjing Zhao
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  8. Xiaoyu He
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  9. Xiaoge Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiaoge Wang.

Electronic supplementary material

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Supplementary material 1

A logistical regression model was used to evaluate risk factors for FLD (DOC 98 kb)

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Liu, S., Chen, D., Fu, S. et al. Prevalence and Risk Factors for Farmer’s Lung in Greenhouse Farmers: An Epidemiological Study of 5,880 Farmers from Northeast China. Cell Biochem Biophys 71, 1051–1057 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12013-014-0308-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12013-014-0308-7

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