Resident Research
UIC Occupational Medicine
Resident Research 2004 to present
2004 Dent D, Forst L. Traumatic occupational
injuries in the state of Illinois. State
trauma registries are becoming more common and more complete. They
have evolved from fairly archaic surveillance tools into sophisticated
information-gathering and reporting systems. The goal of this study
was to use the Illinois State Trauma Registry to quantify and characterize
occupational trauma within the State of Illinois.
Publication: Dent D, Chen N, Forst L, Dorevitch
S. Using a State Trauma Registry to Characterize Occupational
Violence. JOEM 2004 [Abstract], 46:999
2005 Holmes
J, Duvall K. The benefit adequacy of vocational rehabilitation
in the
state of Illinois. One of the goals
of the Workers Compensation Act was to provide
medical care and rehabilitation services for work related injuries.
In the late 1990’s
employers began to question the costs and the effectiveness of
access, wage replacement,
and adequacy of the benefits provided. The aim of this study
was to evaluate the impact
of vocational rehabilitation(VR) in Illinois by comparing the
wages of two sample
populations: workers receiving VR and workers not receiving VR.
In addition, barriers to
successful vocational rehab like SES, gender, and race were evaluated.
2005 Arora J, Rubin R. Non-fatal occupational
injuries presenting to a level I urban
trauma and burn unit. The
UIC/Stroger Consultation Service documents all calls
received from the Stroger trauma unit regarding work-related
traumatic injuries. The goal
of this study was to design a validated questionnaire that would
be used for formal
surveillance of these consultation calls.
2005 Tharenos
L, Dorevitch S. Comparison and prevalence of sensitization to common
allergens in workers exposed and unexposed to laboratory animal allergens. It
is not known whether early childhood exposure to hygiene hypothesis
factors modifies the risk of sensitization to aeroallergens among adults. One
approach toward evaluating whether such exposures confer long lasting
protection from sensitization is to study adults exposed to allergens
in the workplace. Sensitization to rat or mouse allergen was determined
by skin prick testing in a cross-sectional study among university employees
with and without occupational exposure to lab rodents. Current
and prior demographic information was obtained by questionnaire.
Publications: Dorevitch S, Tharenos L, Demirtas
H, Persky VW, Artwohl J, Fortman J:
Rural environment in infancy protects against rodent sensitization
in adulthood. Annals
of Allergy Asthma and Immunology. 2007 (in press). Poster presentation
at American
Occupational Health Conference, Washington, DC. 2005.
2005 Dorevitch
S, Tharenos L, Demirtas H, Persky VW, Artwohl J, Fortman J: Inverse
association between rural environment in infancy and sensitization
to rodents in
adulthood. Annals of Allergy Asthma and Immunology. 2007 (e-pub
ahead of print
May 27, 2007)
2005 Patel M, Williamson R, Buchanan S. Vestibular
Effects on MRI Workers in a 9.4 Tesla Static Magnetic Field. The
static fields utilized in most US hospitals are of 1.5 Tesla or
3.0 Tesla strength for diagnostic purposes. The new MRI scanner
at the University of Illinois at Chicago has a static field of
9.4 Tesla and is the largest whole body scanner in the world. The
objectives of this pilot study were to evaluate the extent and
duration of sensory symptoms caused by an acute exposure to 9.4
T static magnetic field and to objectively note any effects on
the vestibular system to workers in MRI center.
Publication: Patel M, Williamson R, Dorevitch
S, Buchanan S. Pilot Study Investigating the Effect of the
Static Magnetic Field from a 9.4 Tesla MRI on the Vestibular
System. JOEM 2007, in review.
2005 Zhao C, Dorevitch S. Measuring
Asthma severity in Chicago public housing
projects using exhaled breath condensate pH. The
pH of exhaled breath condensate
(EBC) is a promising biomarker in measuring asthma severity.
To date there have been
no studies of EBC pH among public housing residents. We conducted
a study to
determine the relationship between asthma severity and EBC pH
in such a population.
Presentation: Oral presentation at American Occupational Health
Conference,
Washington, DC. 2005.
2006 Halpin J, Forst L. Epidemiology
of occupational burns in an outpatient setting. In
order to prevent the occurrence of occupational burn injuries,
it is critical to understand the risk factors involved including
the work setting, the task the worker was doing, and whether the
burn was caused by hot water, grease, or contact with a hot object.
UICMC conducts worker screening and treats workers from a wide
variety of occupations at Chicago’s O’Hare airport
in addition to treating passengers. The specific aims of this project
were to determine the factors and circumstances involved in occupation
burn injuries in airport workers.
Publication: Halpin J, Forst L. Conditions
Causing Burn Injuries in Food Service Workers, in review.
2006 Amir T, Buchanan S. Profile of
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity in an
academic occupational medicine clinic. Multiple
Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) is a
disorder in which patients suffer from various bodily symptoms
from environmental
chemicals in low doses. These symptoms are not explained by organic
causes. The
purpose of this study was to describe characteristics of MCS
patients that have presented
to the UIC Occupational Medicine Clinic(OMC) including an assessment
of how many
patients met Cullen’s Criteria.
2007 Engelland
E, Krantz A. Asthma related work disability in low income
asthma
patients. Chronic asthma
may affect workers’ ability to perform non-sedentary
occupations. These types of jobs are more common in low-income
populations. This
study was a follow-up of a previous asthma cohort at the Stroger
Pulmonary clinic.
Participants were contacted and interviewed about current work
status.
2007 Song F, Buchanan S. Nasopharyngeal
cancer and occupation in Chengdu,
China.Nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC)
is common in Southeast Asia. Suspected etiologies
include genetic inheritance, diet, and Epstein Barr Virus infection.
Chengdu is a center
of shoe manufacturing. This study aims to calculate the incidence
of NPC within the
general population and within high risk occupations using census
data and tumor registry
data obtained from the CDC in Chengdu.
2007 Kandikar
A, Dorevitch S. Effectiveness of community education on
air quality: A pre-post survey. Air pollution is a huge
public health problem and is a reversible and modifiable cause of asthma.
Although community and office based interventions have typically addressed
asthma education from an intervention point of view, very few have
concentrated on providing community education addressing air pollution
and air quality as risk factors, and none, to our knowledge, have systematically
measured the effectiveness of such education. Objective: To
investigate whether community education to targeted populations on
air quality and air pollution is effective in increasing participants’ knowledge
in these areas and to study the preferred means of disseminating air
quality information in communities.
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