Association between occupational dust exposure and prognosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: a Korean national survey.

Background: Previous studies have investigated the relationship between occupational and environmental agents and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). However, there have been few studies regarding the prognosis of patients with IPF according to patient occupation.

Methods: We investigated whether occupational dust exposure was associated with clinically decreased lung function and poor prognosis.