Problems of evidence in occupational medicine

We devoted this article to the problem of causation and evaluation of causality associations in the occupational epidemiology, exposure assessment, occupational health, and industrial medicine using methodological approaches of clinical epidemiology, for which the term "evidence-based medicine" is wider used in the Russian Federation. The researchers paid some attention to the historical aspects of causality assessment in occupational medicine in the Russian Federation. The authors discuss the issues of evidence in occupational medicine, planning, and implementation of epidemiological studies in occupational therapy using specialized questionnaires and clinical, functional, molecular, and genetic techniques. We analyzed the concept of the "risk factor" of the disease along with the organizational and methodological bases of assessment and management of occupational risks in industrial medicine. The paper also offers applied examples of the relative risk assessment, highlighting the advantages and perils of selected methods in a comparative analysis. Scientists have affected the contribution of systematic reviews aiming to mine evidence-based rationale in occupational epidemiology. The authors speculate and conclude on the importance of risk assessment in the overall morbidity reduction in occupational medicine through efficient prevention programs, along with the underpinnings to include work-related conditions in the national loss of occupational diseases.

Working: The Role of Occupational Epidemiology

The COVID-19 pandemic redemonstrated the importance of work as a determinant of health. Extant disparities were accentuated, as the workforce was divided into the roughly 50% who could safely work from home and those who could not. With the spotlight on work, one might wonder where all the occupational epidemiologists have gone. To answer, we point to diminished research support and more limited workplace access that have led many to shift away from a focus on workers towards other vulnerable populations. We build on the renewed interest in work as a driver of health and inequality during the pandemic to highlight contributions of occupational epidemiology to public health. Consider: (1) etiologic studies of chronic disease based on employment records to define cohorts and reconstruct long-term exposure; (2) studies of hypothetical interventions particularly appropriate for evaluating potential regulations to reduce workplace exposures; and (3) studies of disparities that take advantage of work as a potential source of social stratification and economic opportunity. As we have learned during COVID-19, workplaces can become venues for public health messaging and delivering interventions to enumerated populations of adults. By starting with COVID-19 prevention policies, we have a chance to protect public health and rethink work.

The epidemiology of gynaecologic health: contemporary opportunities and challenges

The field of reproductive epidemiology has primarily focused on reproductive outcomes and gynaecologic cancers. The study of non-cancerous, gynaecologic conditions (eg, uterine fibroids, endometriosis) has not received serious treatment in existing epidemiology textbooks and reproductive epidemiology curricula. Further, these conditions do not neatly fit into the other common subdisciplines within epidemiology (eg, infectious disease, cardiovascular, injury and occupational epidemiology and so on). In this commentary, we identify and illustrate three critical challenges to advancing the epidemiologic research of non-cancerous, gynaecologic conditions. With greater investment and a patient-centred approach, epidemiology can advance knowledge about this critical area of human welfare.