Table Info

Table 1.

Major characteristics of 19 studies

Study [citation number]	Journal	Year	Country	Study type	Sample size	Population country	Population age	Occupational variables	Occupational measurement method	CRS criteria	CRS diagnosis method	Statistical methods	Oxford level of evidence
Occupation status, occupation type, or occupational compound
Koh et al. [31]	American Journal of Industrial Medicine	2009	South Korea	Cross-sectional (three-time points: 1998, 2001, 2005)	1998: 20,829 2001: 20,468 2005: 18,266	South Korea	Range 20–59 years	Occupation type: legislators and senior officials and managers, professionals, technicians and associated professionals, clerical workers, service workers, sales workers, skilled agricultural and forestry and fishery workers, plant or machinery operators and assemblers, elementary occupations, and homemaker	Interview & questionnaire response	Self-report of CRS	Interview & questionnaire response	Multivariable Poisson regression model	3
Hox et al. [30]	Allergy	2012	Belgium	Case-control	546	Belgium	Range 18–65 years	Occupational substances: relevant or irrelevant Commonly reported substances: bleach, inorganic dust, paints, cement, thinner, ammonia, white spirit, fuel gas, and acetone	Survey	Prior ESS for CRS	Medical records	Multivariable Poisson regression model	3
Thilsing et al. [35]	American Journal of Industrial Medicine	2012	Denmark	Cross-sectional	3,099	Denmark	Mean 48.1 years	Occupation type: blue collar or white collar (classified by ISCO-88 coding system) Occupational substances: gases, fumes, dust, and smoke; HMW agents, LMW agents, and mixed environments (classified by asthma-specific job exposure matrix)	Survey	EPOS symptom criteria	Survey	Generalized linear models for the binomial family	3
Gao et al. [28]	Respiratory Research	2016	China	Cross-sectional	10,633	China	0–14 years: n = 644 15–34 years: n = 3,136 35–59 years: n = 4,834 ≥ 60 years: n = 2,005	Occupation type: clearance-related jobs, healthcare-related jobs Occupational substance: dust, poisonous gas, pets, carpet, and damp/moldy environment	Survey	EPOS symptom criteria	Survey	Univariate & multivariate logistic regression	3
Hoffmans et al. [29]	PLOS One	2018	Netherlands	Cross-sectional	8,347	Netherlands	Mean 45.4 years	Occupation status: employed, unemployed, self-employed, not working because of poor health, full-time house person, full-time student, retired, and other	Survey	EPOS symptom criteria	Survey	Univariate & multivariate logistic regression	3
Clarhed et al. [26]	Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine	2018	USA	Cross-sectional	14,906	Norway	Range 16–50 years	Occupational substance: cooking fumes, car/engine exhaust, strong acids, stone dust, flour/grain dust, wood dust, paper dust, metal dust, cleaning agents, super glue, paint/varnish, welding/metal smoke, sewage, hair care products, animals, moisture/mold/mildew, cold work, and physically strenuous work	Survey	EPOS symptom criteria	Survey	Univariate & multivariate logistic regression	3
Veloso-Teles et al. [41]	Rhinology Online	2018	Portugal, Denmark	Cross-sectional	316 (textile workers = 215; retail workers = 101)	Portugal	Textile workers mean 50 years Retail workers mean 41 years	Occupation type: textile workers and retail workers Occupational substance: dust	Interview	Lund Kennedy endoscopic score	Physician visit	Comparative statistics	3
Velasquez et al. [39]	International Forum of Allergy and Rhinology	2020	USA	Retrospective cohort	234	USA	Mean 51.3 years	Occupational substance: VGDFFiM and diesel fumes	Medical records	ICAR—symptom and objective evidence criteria	Medical records	Comparative statistics	3
Clarhed et al. [25]	Rhinology Online	2020	Netherlands	Cross-sectional	7,952	Norway	Range 16–50 years	Occupational substance: cooking fumes, car/engine exhaust, strong acids, stone dust, flour/grain dust, wood dust, paper dust, metal dust, cleaning agents, super glue, paint/varnish, welding/metal smoke, sewage, hair care products, animals, moisture/mold/mildew, cold work, and physically strenuous work	Survey	EPOS symptom criteria	Survey	Univariate & multivariate logistic regression	3
Dietz de Loos et al. [27]	Rhinology Online	2021	Netherlands	Cross-sectional	364	Netherlands	Mean 56 years	Occupational substance: relevant or irrelevant Commonly reported substances: solvents, cleaning products, reactive chemicals, welding fumes/metal dust, combustion engine exhaust, medications, ammonia, flour, flowers, inorganic dust, latex, animals, and cement	Survey	EPOS symptom and objective evidence criteria	Medical records	Univariate & multivariate logistic regression	3
Nynäs et al. [33]	Healthcare (Basel)	2021	Finland	Prospective cohort	99	Finland	Mean 44 years	Occupational substance: mold/moisture damage	Interview	EPOS symptom and objective evidence criteria	Physician visit	Descriptive statistics	3
Tai et al. [34]	ENT Journal	2024	Korea	Cross-sectional	26,335 (control—24,054; CRS—2,124; CRS + asthma—157)	Korea	Control mean 49.8 years CRS mean 51.4 years	Occupation type: indoor occupation, outdoor occupation, and unemployed	Survey	EPOS symptom criteria	Survey	Multivariate Logistic regression model	3
Military occupation
Balali-Mood et al. [36]	Human and Experimental Toxicology	2011	Unknown	Prospective cohort	43	Iran	Mean 50.6 years	Occupation type: veterans Occupational substance: sulfur mustard	Medical records	CT scan (normal, partial opacity, complete opacity, and partial and complete opacity)	Physician visit	Spearman correlation tests	3
Elam et al. [38]	Military Medicine	2022	England	Case-control	798 (CRS = 399; cerumen impaction = 399)	USA	CRS mean 30.98 years Cerumen impaction mean 28.77 years	Occupation type: active-duty service members Occupational substance: PM2.5, PM10, NO₂, and ozone	Military Health Systems; EPA	Prior CRS diagnosis	Medical records	Conditional logistic regression	3
Disaster response occupations
Cho et al. [37]	Respiratory Medicine	2014	Unknown	Nested case cohort	179 (CRS = 76)	USA	Not specified	Occupation type: firefighter Occupational substance: WTC PM	FDNY medical monitoring and treatment program database	Prior CRS diagnosis with objective evidence	Medical records	Kaplan Meier	3
Weakley et al. [42]	Occupational and Environmental Medicine	2016	USA	Retrospective cohort	9,848	USA	Mean 40.1 years	Occupation type: WTC disaster-response workers Occupational substance: WTC PM	Employee records	Prior CRS diagnosis with objective evidence	Medical records	Piecewise exponential survival models	3
Liu et al. [32]	Frontiers in Public Health	2017	USA	Prospective cohort	8,968	USA	Median 39.6 years	Occupational type: firefighter Occupational substance: WTC PM	Survey	Prior CRS diagnosis with objective evidence	Medical records	Piecewise exponential survival models	3
Putman et al. [40]	Occupational and Environmental Medicine	2018	USA, Belgium	Prospective cohort	11,926 (firefighters—10,112; EMS—1,814)	USA	Mean 39.7 years	Occupation type: firefighters, EMS Occupational substance: WTC PM	Employment records	Met one of the following criteria: 1) CRS leading to surgical intervention 2) 2+ ICD-10 CRS codes at least 8 weeks apart in EMR with confirmatory CT scan 3) 2+ self-reported sinus symptoms reported on at least 2 different annual medical questionnaires with confirmatory CT	Medical records	Multivariate Poisson regression model; Multivariate Cox regression model	3
D’Andrea and Reddy [43]	Frontiers in Public Health	2018	Switzerland	Prospective cohort	44	USA	Mean 43.1 years	Occupation type: oil spill clean-up workers Occupational substance: crude oil	Referral from legal representatives regarding oil spill clean-up activities	Prior CRS diagnosis	Medical records	Descriptive statistics	3

Major study characteristics are study and citation number, journal of publication (journal), publication year (year), country, study type, the sample size of study (sample size), the country in which the study population originates (population country), age of study population (population age), occupational variables, method the study used for measuring their occupational variables (occupational measurement method), criteria for defining CRS (CRS criteria), the method which they used to diagnose or retrieve information about CRS (CRS diagnosis method), the main statistical methods used to assess the relationship between CRS and the occupational variables (statistical methods), and the level of evidence as defined by Oxford criteria (Oxford level of evidence). CRS: chronic rhinosinusitis; CT: computed tomography; EMS: emergency medical services; EPA: Environmental Protection Agency; EPOS: European Position Paper on Rhinosinusitis and Nasal Polyps; ESS: endoscopic sinus surgery; FDNY: Fire Department of New York; HMW: high molecular weight; ICAR: International Consensus Statement on Allergy and Rhinology; ICD: International Classification of Diseases; ISCO: International Standard Classification of Occupations; LMW: low molecular weight; NO₂: nitrogen dioxide; PM: particulate matter; VGDFFiM: vapors, gases, dust, fumes, fibers, or mists; WTC: World Trade Center

Supplementary materials

The supplementary material for this article is available at: https://www.explorationpub.com/uploads/Article/file/100946_sup_1.pdf.

Declarations

Author contributions

ASM, CPW, and EHB: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. CKC, BDT, CSE, BAS, and AJK: Conceptualization, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

Not applicable.

Consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent to publication

Not applicable.

Availability of data and materials

The primary data for this review were sourced online from databases listed in the methods. Referenced articles are also accessible on the databases.

Funding

Research in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders branch of the National Institute of Health under award number [T32 DC005360] for authors E.H.B. and C.P.W. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Copyright

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