Implementation of government medical rescue policies benefited treatment of migrant workers' pneumoconiosis

  Objective  To confirm the benefit effect of government medical rescue policies on improvement of treatment of migrant workers' pneumoconiosis in Guangxi.

  Methods  Totally 90 pneumoconiosis patients in H County where medical rescue policies were implement since 2010 and 87 cases in M County where there were no rescue policies available were studied. Through retrospective investigation methods, such as consulting medical records and visiting rural doctors, the data of pulmonary function percentage of forced vital capacity in predicted value (FVC%), forced expiratory volume in one second in predicted value (FEV₁%), one second rate (FEV₁/FVC), and classification, pneumoconiosis stage and complications of these pneumoconiosis patients, before and after 10 years, were collected and compared.

  Results  At the beginning in 2010, there were no significant differences of the pulmonary function indexes and classification, stage, complications between the patients in the two counties (P>0.05). Ten year after implementation of medical rescue policies(2020), FVC%, FEV₁% and FEV₁/FVC of patients in H county were(91.44±11.00)%, (83.46±17.17)% and (74.32±10.27)%, respectively, which were substantially better than those of patients in M county (81.49±14.01)%, (75.12±21.64)% and (70.21±14.64)%, respectively (P < 0.05). Compared with 2010, no one in H county in Phase I was promoted, while some patients in Phase I and Phase II in M county were promoted in 2020. The promotion rate of M county was higher than that of H county (P < 0.05). In 2020, the proportion of complications of patients in H County was 62.22% and lower than that of patients in M County(89.97%)(P < 0.05), while pneumonia, pleural effusion and multiple complications of patients in M County was more obvious (P < 0.05).

  Conclusions  Implementation of medical rescue policies benefited, to some extent, the treatment of migrant workers' pneumoconiosis, mitigating the decrease of pulmonary function, the deterioration of ventilatory dysfunction, the progression of pneumoconiosis stage, and the occurrence of complications. The government's relief measures are conducive to the treatment and rescue of the migrant workers, and comprehensively protecting these workers' occupational health rights and interests.