[Morbidity among textile industry workers evaluated on the basis of cross sectional studies and absenteeism data]

In the study of a randomly selected group of textile workers, a tentative comparative analysis of chronic diseases prevalence rates, as estimated from medical examinations and certificates on temporary work disablement, was carried out. The information from both those sources is highly differentiated, depending on the type of disease. In case of diseases of endocrine glands, metabolism, blood and haematopoietic organs, as well as mental disorders, diseases of the circulatory and osteomuscular systems, the rates of diagnoses through medical examinations considerably surpass those indicated by certificates of temporary work disablement. E.g. circulatory system diseases were found in 29% of 5132 subjects, whereas only 16% of subjects exhibited absenteeism related to that disease. The divergence of the rates of diagnoses and sickness absenteeism was found in the central nervous system diseases (1%), heart diseases (7%), chronic bronchitis (3.8%-3.2%), gastric and duodenal ulcer (4.7%-4.3%) and in the diseases of liver, gallbladder and pancreas (6.0%-5.3%).