TOPLINE:

Healthcare workers undergoing patch testing were more likely than nonhealthcare workers to have occupational skin disease (OSD) and hand dermatitis, with common allergens linked to gloves, disinfectants, and soaps.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers performed a retrospective analysis of 37,720 patients from the North American Contact Dermatitis Group (NACDG) who underwent patch testing between 2005 and 2022.
• Of these, 2293 were healthcare workers.
• Demographic characteristics, clinical features, and allergen reactions among healthcare workers were compared with those of nonhealthcare workers.

TAKEAWAY:

• Healthcare workers were more frequently women, had hand involvement, and OSD; they also had higher rates of having a history of atopic dermatitis (30.7% vs 27.4%; P = .0005), asthma (20.2% vs 16.6%; P = .0001), and hay fever (37.6% vs 32.4%; P = .0001) than nonhealthcare workers.
• Overall, 68.1% of healthcare workers had at least one positive patch test, and 14.1% of those were occupationally relevant. Approximately 5.1% of healthcare workers had positive allergic reactions to occupationally relevant allergens not included in the NACDG screening series.
• Rubber accelerators such as carba mix, thiuram mix, and diphenylguanidine, commonly found in gloves, were the most frequent occupational allergens identified.
• Surfactants and preservatives in soaps and disinfectants were additional common sources of allergic reactions: cocamide diethanolamine, quaternium-15, formaldehyde, methylchloroisothiazolinone/methylisothiazolinone, methylisothiazolinone, and chloroxylenol.

IN PRACTICE:

“Since 5% of [healthcare workers] reacted to occupational allergens/substances not found in screening series, this suggests screening series may miss occupational allergens causing workplace ACD [allergic contact dermatitis], as discussed in other studies,” the authors wrote. The findings, they added, “reinforce the need for continued surveillance, prevention strategies, and comprehensive patch testing to mitigate OSD risk among healthcare workers.”

SOURCE:

The study was led by Margo J. Reeder, MD, Department of Dermatology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, and was published online as a brief report on March 10 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

LIMITATIONS:

The analysis was retrospective and was derived from a referral population. Additionally, relevance was assessed at the time of final reading and supplemental allergens and substances were not recorded in the NACDG database.

DISCLOSURES:

The study did not receive any specific funding. Reeder disclosed receiving royalties from UpToDate. Several authors reported serving as consultant/advisory board member/investigator and having other financial ties with various pharma companies including AbbVie, Arcutis, Astria, Dermavant, AstraZeneca, Cigna, Merck, Johnson & Johnson and others. Full disclosures are noted in the original article.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.