Hazem Gallagher-Alagha
University of Glasgow, Scotland
Title: Are the outcomes of health surveillance predictive of development of new cases of hand arm vibration syndrome?
Biography
Biography: Hazem Gallagher-Alagha
Abstract
This study aimed to establish whether the results of repeat Health Surveillance (HS) for Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) are predictive of the development of new cases and the progression of existing cases of HAVS amongst exposed employees. A secondary objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of control measures for Hand Transmitted Vibration (HTV) exposure. The study describes and analyses trends of HS scores over 10 years. The use of previous HS records allows for the retrospective analysis trends of annual HS results and scores. The aim of this presentation is to demonstrate
that the number of new cases of HAVS in the exposed population declined sharply between 2003 and 2007 and continued to decline, albeit it at a lesser rate between 2007 and 2012, Using HS scores as a linear function of time, the results suggest that scores consistently decreased over time and that the influence of time on the scores was highly significant in all cases.Annual HS for HAVS is, to an extent, predictive of the development of new cases and the progression of existing ones amongst exposed employees. Furthermore, it can be demonstrated that control measures are relatively effective for Hand
Transmitted Vibration exposure.