SynthesisOccupational medicine (Oxford, England)2017
Systematic review: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and construction workers.
Synthesis in Occupational medicine (Oxford, England), 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Health seeking behaviours among construction workers: a systematic review.BMC public health · 2026Pooled it
- Identifying risk factors for COPD and adult-onset asthma: an umbrella review.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2023Pooled it
- Work-related respiratory health conditions among construction workers: a systematic narrative review.BMJ open respiratory research · 2023Pooled it
- Vapors, gases, dusts and fumes at work and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease/bronchitis: a systematic review and meta-analyses.Journal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England) · 2026Article
- Impact of occupational exposures in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: current understanding and knowledge gaps.Current opinion in pulmonary medicine · 2025Review
- Occupation and 11-year lung function decline in the HUNT Study.Occupational medicine (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Particulate matter reduction efficiency analysis of sprinkler system as targeted control measures for construction activity.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Global, Regional, and National Burden of COPD Attributable to Occupational Particulate Matter, Gases, and Fumes, 1990-2019: Findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2023Article
- A nomogram for predicting lung-related diseases among construction workers in Wuhan, China.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Prevalence, risk factors, and interventions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in South Asia: a scoping review protocol.Systematic reviews · 2021Article
- Incident chronic obstructive pulmonary disease associated with occupation, industry, and workplace exposures in the Health and Retirement Study.American journal of industrial medicine · 2021Article
- Occupational exposure and the risk of airway obstruction and mortality.International journal of public health · 2020Article
- Building a Sustainable Construction Workforce.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Article
- Prevalence and factors associated with respiratory symptoms among civil construction workers: an occupational health surveillance proposal.Revista brasileira de medicina do trabalho : publicacao oficial da Associacao Nacional de Medicina do Trabalho-ANAMT · 2019Article
- Association between Work and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).Journal of clinical medicine · 2018Article
- Occupational Exposure to Air Pollutants and Higher Risk of COPD in Construction Workers: A Meta-Analysis Study.Indian journal of occupational and environmental medicineArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBetween 15 and 20% of prevalent cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have been attributed to occupational exposures to vapours, gases, dusts and fumes. Dust at construction sites is still a challenge, but no overview exists of COPD among construction workers.
aimsTo assess the occurrence of COPD among construction workers.
methodsWe performed a systematic search in PubMed and Embase between 1 January 1990 and 31 August 2016 in order to identify epidemiological studies with a risk estimate for either COPD morbidity/mortality or a spirometry-based definition of airway obstruction among workers in the construction industry. The authors independently assessed studies to determine their eligibility and performed a quality assessment of the included papers.
resultsTwelve studies were included. Nine studies found a statistically significant association between COPD and work in the construction industry, although only among never-smokers in one study and only for the period after 2000 in another study. One study found that the annual decline in forced expiratory volume in 1 s was significantly higher among construction workers compared with bus drivers.
conclusionsThis review suggests that COPD occurs more often among construction workers than among workers who are not exposed to construction dust. It is not possible to draw any conclusions on specific subgroups as most studies analysed construction workers as one united group. In addition, no potential exposure-effect relationship could be identified.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.