CLINICAL RESEARCH Risk of syncope during work

Aims Little is known regarding the overall prevalence of syncope in a population of workers and the risk of occurrence during working time. Methods and results A total of 452 consecutiveworkers (mean age: 46+9 years) were invited to answer an anonymous questionnaire. They had been employed for 22+10 years for a total of 9765 yearsworked. In the cohort, 160 subjects (35%) reported a total of 465 episodesof syncopeduring their lives; 64 (14%) suffereda syncopal episode after the start of employment, but only 26 (5.7%) reported syncope atwork, 7 (1.5%) having had 2 episodes, and 1 (0.2%) 3 episodes (total: 36 episodes). The risk of syncopeduringworkwas4.6 times higher for thosewhohad aprior historyof syncope [18of 138 (13%)] than for those whodid not [8 of 314 (3%), P 0.001]. Theoccurrenceof syncopeduringwork for the patientswith a historyof syncope was one syncopal episode in every 99 years worked and for those who had already had an episode during work, one episode in every 16 years worked. Only one patient experienced minor trauma as a consequence of syncope during work and three were referred to the emergency department. All patients continued their employment without any problems. Conclusion The prevalence of syncope during work is low and its impact is benign. The probability of syncope during work is highe