ANSWERS TO LATEX ALLERGY EXERCISE

PART A:

The study drawn on for this exercise was Liss GM, Sussman GL, Deal K, Brown S, Cividino M, Siu S, Beezhold DH, Smith G, Swanson MC, Yunginger J, Douglas A, Holness DL, Lebert P, Keith P, Wasserman S, Turjanmaa K. Latex allergy: epidemiological study of 1351 hospital workers. Occup Environ Med. 1997 May; 54(5): 335-342.

Answer to question #1: What sort of study is this?

It is a cross-sectional study.

Answer to question #2: The occurrence of positive latex skin tests was 12.1% = 160/1326. You could calculate a 95% confidence interval also.

Answer to question #3: What is this measure of occurrence called?

Prevalence.

Answer to question #4: This occurrence varied by:

  1. Sex: No
  2. Age: No
  3. Smoking status: No
  4. Atopic status: Yes
  5. Job title: Yes
  6. Glove use: No
  7. Contact with dermal irritants: No

Answer to question #5:

In this large study of healthcare workers in a hospital setting, the minimum estimate of the occurrence of latex sensitisation among all those eligible was 160/2062 = 7.8%

Answer to question #6: What makes this a large study?

The large number of participants (not the large number of authors).

Answer to question #7:What sort of future study is being planned?

A prospective follow-up cohort.

Answer to question #8: Name a measure of occurrence they could use in the future study.

Incidence proportion or incidence rate.

Answer to question #9: Who will be enrolled into the new study?

Those who are disease-free now, i.e., those who are skin prick negative.

PART B:

The four abstracts are respectively:

  1. A case report.
  2. A case report. The fact that the patient had 4 episodes does not make it a case series.
  3. Case control. Cases were identified first, and controls with the same characteristics as the cases were then identified and studied.
  4. Retrospective cohort.