Prevalence and risk factors of hand/wrist/forearm eczema among migrant workers in Qassim, Saudi Arabia.

Authors

Juliann Saquib, Abdul Rahman Suleman, Ahmed Dickson, Idris Sula, Mohammed A Charbat, Mohamed Abdelnasser Ismail, Shoroq M T Alamin, Zienab Yasser, Heba Ramadan, Rahaf Aldawish, Samar Aldoush, Abdulrahman Almazrou, Nazmus Saquib

Published in

International archives of occupational and environmental health. Volume 99. Issue 8. Oct 10, 2026. Epub Oct 10, 2026.

Abstract

Migrant workers may be vulnerable to occupational hand eczema because of their exposure to skin irritants at the workplace. However, Saudi-specific data is limited. We aimed to estimate the one-year prevalence of hand/wrist/forearm eczema and identify associated factors among migrant workers in Saudi Arabia.
We conducted a cross-sectional study of 2,123 migrant workers from seven occupations (auto repair, city and hospital cleaning, construction, food service, hairdressing, and poultry production). Trained multilingual interviewers administered a structured questionnaire on sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle, and health conditions. Hand/wrist/forearm eczema was assessed using the validated Nordic Occupational Skin Questionnaire-Short Version. Logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
The mean age of participants was 35 years (SD 9), and 85.3% were men. The one-year prevalence of self-reported hand/wrist/forearm eczema was 4.2%. In the multivariable analyses, women had significantly higher odds of eczema than men (OR 7.7, 95% CI 2.7-21.8). Current smoking (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.1-4.8), poor diet (OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.3-4.5), and intermediate physical activity (OR 2.3 95% CI 1.2-4.3) were independently associated with eczema. Compared with restaurant workers, city cleaners (OR 10.8), poultry factory workers (OR 9.3), construction workers (OR 6.3), and auto-repair workers (OR 5.8) had substantially higher odds of eczema (p values < 0.05).
Occupation emerged as one of the strong correlates of hand/wrist/forearm eczema. Additionally, modifiable lifestyle (poor diet, smoking, and low physical activity) and female gender were associated with eczema.

PMID:
42859274
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 11 Oct 2026.

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