A Retrospective Analysis of a Training and Research Hospital’s Occupational Diseases Outpatient Clinic: Where are we in Diagnosing Occupational Diseases?

Objective: Occupational diseases (OD) are preventable conditions, which pose a significant burden on healthcare and economy.OD is a new field of specialization in Turkey.This study aimed to assess the diagnoses of patients presenting to the newly established OD clinic within the first 3 years to contribute to revealing the status of OD in our country.Material and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, which assessed 1101 patients presenting between August 2018 and April 2021 based on sex, age, type of presentation, reason for referral, workplace, exposure time, potential exposure risks, and final diagnosis.Results: Of 1101 patients, 1000 (90.8%) were male and 101 (9.2%) were female.The mean age was 40.9±9.7 years, the median duration of employment was 120 (25 th -75 th percentile; 60-210) months.Occupational respiratory disease, with 1025 (93.0%) patients was the most common reason for application.Examinations were completed on 888 (80.6%) patients and medical status reports were issued accordingly.The assessment of the patients revealed no disease or occupational relationship in 640 (58.1%) patients.On the other hand, 208 (18.9%) patients were diagnosed with OD, 40 (3.6%) with work-aggravated diseases.Among those with OD, 112 (10.1%) were diagnosed with pneumoconiosis, 39 (3.5%) with occupational asthma, 32 (2.9%) with noise-induced hearing loss, and 18 (1.6%) with epicondylitis/tendonitis/impingement.Conclusion: İt is essentially required to enable health surveillance in the workplace for the identification and management of employee health problems, and to establish the legal infrastructure of inter-institutional cooperation.In Turkey, the leading occupational health risks are dust, chemicals, ergonomic risks, and noise.Occupational