Incidence of work-related asthma in members of a health maintenance organization.

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate work-related asthma among health maintenance organization (HMO) members. Recent reports suggest that the incidence of work-related asthma may be much higher than Sentinel Event Notification Systems for Occupational Risks (SENSOR) data estimate.

Methods: Using the HMO's electronic medical record, we identified 1,747 persons with evidence of new or recurrent asthma.