The role of occupational medicine in assessing work limitation: A cross-sectional study on construction workers over a five-year period in Croatia.

Background: Maintaining adequate working ability of construction workers is of considerable importance for society, as the construction sector is burdened with high prevalence of work-related diseases and health-issues.

Objective: To determine the number and age of construction workers in Croatia with temporary or permanent work limitation status, as well as to identify the most common health causes of such work limitation.

Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was performed using the data from 2534 construction workers, aged between 18 and 65 years, who underwent standardized routine occupational health examinations between 2011 and 2015. Thorough medical history and medical record reviews, blood and urine analyses, vision parameters and hearing range evaluation, as well as mental health assessment were conducted on every study participant.

Results: A total of 210 construction workers (8.29%) received occupational/work limitation status (either temporary or permanent). Four main categories of work limitation were high blood pressure, disorders of the liver and digestive system, hearing loss and amblyopia, comprising 61.69% of all diagnoses. A total of 37.62% of workers with work limitation status had two or more different diagnoses (i.e. co-morbid conditions). Those with work limitation (either temporary or long-term) were significantly older than those fit enough to work (p-value <0.00001).

Conclusions: This type of organized screening represents a significant preventative effort in the construction industry, as workers may become more cognizant of the conditions that may affect their work ability.