Health Assessment of Self-employed Hairdressers in France

• Published in: Journal of Occupational Health Vol. 56; no. 2; pp. 157 - 163
• Main Authors: Deschamps, Frederic, Langrand, Jerome, Lesage, Francois‐Xavier
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Australia JAPAN SOCIETY FOR OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH 01.03.2014; John Wiley & Sons, Inc
• Subjects: Adult; Beauty Culture; Craftsmen; Cumulative Trauma Disorders - epidemiology; Employment; Exposure; Female; Hair; Hairdressers; Health; Health assessment; Health Status; Humans; Middle Aged; Occupational diseases; Occupational Diseases - epidemiology; Occupational epidemiology; Occupational Exposure; Occupational health; Prevalence; Protective; Respiratory diseases; Respiratory Tract Diseases - epidemiology; Self employment; Self‐employed; Sex; Skin diseases; Skin Diseases - epidemiology; Wages; Workplace; France; ANE, France
• ISSN: 1341-9145; 1348-9585; 1348-9585
• DOI: 10.1539/joh.13-0139-FS

Objective：Hairdressers have a high incidence of occupational diseases, owing to excessive wet work and exposure to chemical substances. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of occupational diseases in a population of self-employed hairdressers, matched for age and sex with a control group of wage-earning hairdressers. Method：A health questionnaire was administered to both groups by an occupational health practitioner. Results：Irritative skin diseases were reported by 1.5% of the self-employed hairdressers versus 9.1% of the wage earners. Conversely, the rates of respiratory diseases and cumulative musculoskeletal injuries were much higher among self-employed hairdressers. Conclusions：This study shows that the overall health of self-employed hairdressers is lower than that of their wage-earning counterparts. This can be attributed to several aspects of work exposure, organization, including longer working hours, fewer protective measures and the absence of preventive medicine in the workplace.