TY - JOUR T1 - Hospitalization for exacerbation of respiratory symptoms in former workers of a poison gas factory JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 44 IS - Suppl 58 SP - P1115 AU - Yoshifumi Nishimura AU - Nobuhisa Ishikawa AU - Hiroshi Takahashi AU - Masaya Taniwaki AU - Keiichi Kondo AU - Noboru Hattori AU - Nobuoki Kohno Y1 - 2014/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P1115.abstract N2 - Introduction: Exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) increases the rate of hospitalization. Since 1952 and for more than 60 years, we have provided health care to the former workers of a poison gas factory. Previous studies in our laboratories revealed a high incidence of COPD among these workers. However, exacerbation of respiratory symptoms among them has not been evaluated to date.Objectives: We aimed to elucidate the clinical features leading to the hospitalization for exacerbation in former workers of a poison gas factory.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed clinical records of 635 former workers of a poison gas factory, who underwent pulmonary function tests between 2009 and 2010. Hospitalization for exacerbation was defined as exacerbation of respiratory symptoms plus hospitalization.Results: The mean annual hospitalization rates for exacerbation of former workers with and without COPD were 0.070 and 0.041 events per patient year, respectively. Among 51 patients who experienced at least one hospitalization for exacerbation during the 2-year observation period, 13 patients developed multiple hospitalization for exacerbation. Multivariate analysis showed that older age (P = 0.003), current smoking status (P = 0.01), and lower %FEV1 (P < 0.001) were independent predictors of hospitalization for exacerbation.Conclusions: Former poison gas workers, even those without lung function impairment, required frequent hospitalization for exacerbation. Our study suggests that older age, current smoking status, and lower %FEV1 are the important predictors of hospitalization for exacerbation in workers of poison gas factories. ER -