Prevalência de sintomas respiratórios em trabalhadores das áreas de pátio/pista do aeroporto Internacional Governador André Franco Montoro no Município de Guarulhos

Abstract

Introduction: The World Health Organization (WHO) has often warned nations about the levels of pollutant levels discharged into the atmosphere. Some studies have shown that air traffic workers have a higher prevalence of respiratory and cardiovascular symptoms. However, there are not recent studies on this topic in Brazil. Purpose: We aim to evaluate the relationship between exposure to environmental proliferation emitted by aircraft and ground equipment from the international airport Governador André Franco Montoro in Guarulhos / runway areas and asthma symptoms among workers. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study which two self-reported questionnaires were used, one to collect sociobiodemographic data and the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) validated in Portuguese to verify the asthma symptoms. A probabilistic sample with 322 participants, selected randomly, answered the survey by email through Google Forms. The sample size was calculated based on the prevalence of respiratory problems in the population of 20%, a significance level of 5%, power of 80% and delta of 5%. We made a descriptive analysis and used chi-square and / or Fisher's exact tests for categorical variables and the comparison test between two percentages. Also parametric comparisons tests (t test, analysis of variance) or nonparametric tests (Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-wallis), depending if a sample had the normal curve (Kolmogorov-smirnov test) and homoscedasticity (Levene test). The logistic regression model was used. The level of significance was 5%. Results: It was verified that 58,6% of the workers were white (n=188), 90,7% were nonsmokers (n=291), 59,8% were skilled workers or completed high school (n=192) and 38,3% earned 3 to 5 minimum wages (n=123). Also, 48,7% of the aircraft maintenance technicians have worked more than 20 years (n=156) and 44,8% in night shift (n=144). The average age of ground workers group was 47,8 +10,7 years and other areas 48,8 + 8,4 years (p=0,429). 58,7% of the ground workers group were more sedentarian comparing to the other group 43,0% (p<0,012). When the two groups were compared in the positive responses of the ECRHS survey, it was observed a higher prevalence in the ground workers group. Most of the participants reported having an allergenic item at home. Besides, 16,9% of this group (n=40) were considered suggestive for asthma and 12,9% (n=11) for the other group. The logistic regression showed that the ground workers group have three times more of having asthma (OR 3.0 - CI1.26 ¿ 7.12 p<0,013) than the other group. Conclusion: It was concluded that chances of having asthma among the airport ground/runway workers increase three times if comparing to the other groups.