Assessment of the Health Complaints among White-Collar and Blue-Collar Workers Using the Electronic Health Records

Abstract

Electronic health records (EHRs) are a useful tool to determine the causes and trends of work-related diseases in terms of periodic check-ups or emergency interventions at the workplace. To detect and prevent work-related diseases, EHRs could be important determinants for assessing interactions between health complaints and work-related factors. This study aimed to address the prevalence of diseases that cause potentially work-related diseases and the relationship between blue-collar/white-collar work status, by using EHRs. We retrospectively analyzed the clinical and demographic data from EHRs (46 white-collar and 94 blue-collar) by using descriptive and correlation statistic tests. We found that type 2 diabetes, influenza, acute pharyngitis, and liver fat had a higher prevalence among blue-collar workers while urinary infection and myalgia had a higher prevalence among white-collar workers. The work status had a very weak positive correlation with type 2 diabetes (r=0.236, p=0.005) and had a very weak negative correlation with myalgia (r=-0.167, p=0.048) and urinary infection (r= -0.248, p= 0.003). Consequently, the present study provided that the work status and EHRs are important determinants for assessing interactions between health complaints and work-related factors that were attributable to specific work status such as blue-collar and white-collar.