Occupational Wood Dust Exposure and Risk of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Meta-Analysis

Background: Occupational wood dust exposure has been concerned by several studies, which suggest that wood dust inhalation may be associated with an increased risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD).To assess this association more accurately, this study explored the relationship between occupational exposure to wood dust and COPD.Method: Retrieve literature from the establishment of the database to January 2024 on wood dust and COPD, including databases such as PubMed, Springer, CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) and Wanfang.Use the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) scale to assess the quality of articles that meet the criteria.Judge the heterogeneity of the articles based on I2 and P values and select the appropriate effect model.Evaluate publication bias through Begg's and Egger's tests.Results: A total of 437 relevant documents were retrieved and 13 studies, including 3 cohort studies and 6 cross-sectional studies, were included in this meta-analysis.There were 4,367 cases of COPD patients who had not been exposed to wood dust and 1,590 cases of COPD patients who had been exposed.The literature quality scores were all above 5.There was high heterogeneity among the studies (I2 = 94%) and a random effects model was used to analyze the combined odds ratio (OR).The combined OR value indicated that exposure to wood dust increases the risk of developing COPD (OR = 0.58, 95%CI = 0.35 ~ 0.96) and even after controlling for smoking factors, exposure to wood dust still showed an increased risk of developing COPD (OR = 0.53, 95%CI: 0.30 ~ 0.83).The results of subgroup analysis showed that OR (95%CI) was greater than 1, except 6 studies with sample size <1000,3 cross-sectional studies, 4 FEV 1 / FVC <0.7,2 FEV 1 / FV C <LLN and 3 studies before 2020. Conclusion:Contact with wood dust in the process of labor can increase the risk of COPD for occupational people.We should pay attention to the health monitoring of wood dust staff, control the possible condition as soon as possible and maintain regular follow-up after leaving the post.