Hand eczema and wet work: dose-response relationship and effect of leaving the profession

Wet work is an important risk factor for occupational hand eczema.

To examine the effect of job change in workers with occupational hand eczema caused by wet work, and to evaluate the dose-response relationship between intensity of wet work and eczema.

The study is based on a subgroup (n = 954) from a descriptive, registry-based study including all participants with occupational hand eczema caused by wet work recognized by the Danish Labour Market Insurance Authority in 2010 and 2011. A follow-up questionnaire was sent out 4-5 years later (response 58%).

Change of profession and being outside the labour market had a positive effect on healing and improvement of hand eczema. Inverse dose-response relationships were found between the amount of time spent with wet hands at work and healing (p = 0.001) and improvement (p < 0.001), and between the frequency of hand washing at work and healing (p = 0.013) and improvement (p < 0.001).

Leaving the profession has a positive effect on eczema; however, even minor changes in exposure to wet work were associated with healing and improvement. This information has implications with respect to advice given to patients with occupational hand eczema caused by wet work.