Hand dermatitis in a prospectively-followed cohort of hairdressing apprentices: final results of the POSH study

The incidence of hand dermatitis is high in the hairdressing trade; the ind ividual disease burden is substantial, as are the costs of treatment, worke rs compensation and retraining programs. To evaluate the risk of developing occupational irritant hand dermatitis associated with several potential ri sk factors, namely constitution (atopy) and occupational exposure, an obser vational prospective population-based cohort study set in vocational traini ng schools in northwest Germany, recruiting 2352 hairdressing apprentices, was performed. Unprotected wet work of more than 2 h per day is the major s ignificant risk Factor; low ambient absolute humidity is equally associated with a significantly increased risk. Compared to the youngest age group, r isk diminishes with increasing age. Constitutional risk factors are difficu lt to evaluate because of selective dropout of atopic participants. For pri mary prevention, a population approach, improving working conditions and sk in protection for all exposed, appears to be the most beneficial.