ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1652216
Global, regional, and national disease burden of pneumoconiosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, tracheal-bronchus-and-lung cancer, and asthma attributable to occupational risks, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021
Provisionally accepted
- 1Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, China
- 2China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, China
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Background: Occupational risks contribute substantially to the global burden of pneumoconiosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), tracheal-bronchus-and-lung (TBL) cancer, and asthma; however, comprehensive, up-to-date global, regional, and national estimates remain limited. Methods: Data from the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2021 were analyzed to quantify the burden of these diseases attributable to occupational exposure across 204 countries between 1990 and 2021, stratified by sex, age, socio-demographic index (SDI), and geographic region. Results: In 2021, occupational risks led to 30,546 deaths due to pneumoconiosis, 285,628 deaths due to COPD, 585,451 deaths due to TBL (the highest among the four diseases), and 18,315 deaths due to asthma, with disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) of 1.8, 6.1, 12.6, and 0.4 million, respectively. Male patients exhibited higher burdens of all diseases, reflecting greater exposure to male-dominated industries. Geographically, middle SDI regions had the highest absolute cases for pneumoconiosis and COPD, high-SDI regions for TBL cancer, and low-middle SDI regions for asthma. While age-standardized rates declined for most outcomes over time, the absolute burdens increased owing to population growth and aging, with demographic factors driving up to 80% of the increase in total cases. Health inequities persisted, with lower SDI regions bearing a disproportionate burden, despite modest improvements in absolute inequalities. Conclusion: These findings highlight the need for strengthened occupational health regulations, targeted interventions in high-risk regions, and policies addressing population dynamics to mitigate the impact of workplace exposure on respiratory health.
Keywords: Pneumoconiosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, tracheal-bronchus-and-lung cancer, Asthma, Occupational risks
Received: 23 Jun 2025; Accepted: 19 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lin, Ding, Dang and Zhan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shan Lin, dr.shanlin@foxmail.com
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