TABLE 3.

Age-standardized prevalence^a and prevalence odds ratios (POR) of airflow obstruction among ever-employed U.S. adults aged 18–79 years by occupation, NHANES 2007–2008 to 2011–2012

	Ever-employed U.S. adults
Occupationb	Unweighted sample sizec	P (%)	95% CI	PORd	95% CI
Total	13 011
Extraction	32	34.49	15.55–53.44	3.82	1.55–9.43
Bookbinders, prepress, and printing	45	31.64	15.02–48.26	3.14	1.56–6.30
Installation, maintenance, and repair (power-line, telecommunications line, vending machine, locksmiths, manufactured building, signal and track switch, commercial divers, riggers)	52	29.15	13.28–45.01	3.11	1.48–6.55
Construction laborers and construction trades helpers	278	20.42	13.62–27.22	1.94	1.28–2.94
Production inspectors, testers, and packaging/filling machine operators and tenders	126	20.08*	7.77–32.40	1.56	0.74–3.31
First-line supervisors/managers of construction trades and extraction workers	80	19.95	9.16–30.74	1.87	0.96–3.64
Metal furnace operators, model makers, molders, machine tool setters, tool makers, heat treating equipment setters, lay-out workers, plating workers, welding workers, tool grinders, all other metal and plastic workers	198	19.33	8.42–30.24	1.68	0.82–3.44
Carpenters	165	19.04	10.24–27.84	1.74	0.97–3.11
Construction equipment operators, electricians, pipelayers, roofers, construction inspectors, fence erectors, highway maintenance, rail-track laying, and miscellaneous construction	206	17.74	11.82–23.65	1.58	1.02–2.46
Food preparation and serving related occupations (except chefs, cooks, waiters and waitresses)	389	17.68	12.41–22.95	1.31	0.91–1.88
Automotive service technicians and mechanics	99	17.57	9.05–26.09	1.45	0.80–2.62
Laundry and dry-cleaning, pressers, sewing machine operators, shoemakers, tailors, and textile and upholstery workers	199	16.63*	5.33–27.93	1.63	0.71–3.77
Construction - carpet, floor, tile, and drywall installers; glaziers; insulation workers; painters; paperhangers; plasterers	151	16.55	9.11–24.00	1.41	0.82–2.44
Waiters and waitresses	246	15.56*	4.53–26.59	1.07	0.53–2.16
Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides	291	15.50	10.31–20.70	1.32	0.89–1.97
Driver/sales workers and truck drivers	308	15.27	10.10–20.44	1.36	0.93–2.00
Bus, truck, heavy vehicle, small engine, and miscellaneous vehicle mechanics; control and valve, heating, home appliance, and other installers, repairers, and maintenance workers; millwrights	138	15.15	9.37–20.93	1.25	0.75–2.06
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations	696	15.06	11.12–19.00	1.29	0.94–1.76
Artists and related workers, jewelers, painters, production workers, and helpers	201	14.21	9.34–19.08	1.35	0.87–2.08
Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations	166	14.02*	5.56–22.49	1.10	0.52–2.33
Assemblers, structural metal fabricators, and fitters	167	13.52*	4.77–22.27	1.11	0.57–2.18
Cooks, chefs, and head cooks	319	13.38	7.84–18.91	1.08	0.68–1.70
Transportation occupations	173	13.32*	5.03–21.61	1.00	0.50–1.98
Boilermakers, brickmasons, cement masons, sheet metal, reinforcing and structural iron, and steel workers	64	13.29*	4.45–22.12	1.08	0.52–2.25
Computer scientists, programmers, software engineers, support specialists; database and network administrators and analysts	220	12.96	7.90–18.02	1.07	0.69–1.67
Retail salespersons	319	12.76	8.45–17.07	0.93	0.64–1.36
Personal care and service occupations, funeral directors, veterinarians, gaming cage workers	186	12.27	6.60–17.94	1.04	0.59–1.83
First-line supervisors/managers of retail and non-retail sales workers	284	12.14	7.31–16.98	0.99	0.64–1.54
Material moving occupations	212	12.13	6.10–18.16	0.93	0.52–1.68
Sales and related occupations (except cashiers and retail salespersons)	319	11.92	8.58–15.27	0.94	0.70–1.26
Supervisors of office and administrative support workers; switchboard, telephone, and communications operators; billing and bookkeeping workers	320	11.81	6.77–16.86	1.01	0.59–1.72
Cashiers	337	11.78	5.01–18.55	1.04	0.60–1.80
Business and financial operations (agents and business managers, purchasing agents, buyers, claims adjusters, compliance officers, cost estimators, and human resources specialists)	111	11.77*	4.06–19.48	0.85	0.47–1.53
Mathematicians, architects, surveyors and technicians, engineers and technicians, drafters	245	11.59	6.24–16.94	0.89	0.55–1.44
Construction managers; food service managers	168	11.52	5.40–17.64	0.80	0.44–1.46
Installation, maintenance, repair (motor, electronics)	124	11.51	5.60–17.41	1.02	0.59–1.75
Computer control operators, metal and plastic machine operators, machinists	100	11.26	7.02–15.51	1.06	0.62–1.82
Design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations	222	11.18	6.23–16.13	0.82	0.51–1.32
Business and financial operations (logisticians, accountants, tax workers)	273	10.77	6.24–15.30	0.89	0.56–1.41
Management occupations (gaming lodging, medical, natural sciences, postmasters, real estate, social and community service)	298	10.47	6.01–14.92	0.74	0.45–1.21
Education, training, and library occupations	619	10.22	7.43–13.01	0.74	0.54–1.01
Child care workers, personal and home care aides, recreation workers, residential advisors	274	10.02	5.10–14.95	0.82	0.47–1.44
Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations, healthcare support occupations	569	10.00	7.05–12.95	0.78	0.55–1.10
Management occupations (chief executives, general managers, legislators, business, financial, industrial production, transportation, education)	438	9.92	5.51–14.34	0.79	0.49–1.27
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers	201	9.68	5.21–14.15	0.78	0.46–1.31
Protective service occupations	249	9.23*	3.61–14.84	0.61	0.30–1.25
Office and administrative support (Cargo agents, couriers, postal service mail carriers, shipping and stock clerks, secretaries, and administrative assistants)	457	9.21	5.31–13.12	0.71	0.44–1.15
Interviewers; clerks (file, hotel, new accounts, order, reservation, postal service, production); library, human resources assistants; receptionists; meter readers; weighers; dispatchers; postal service mail sorters	267	9.07	4.53–13.62	0.70	0.41–1.18
Clerks (payroll, procurement, brokerage, correspondence, court, credit), tellers, customer service representatives	220	8.34	3.32–13.36	0.60	0.33–1.10
Life, physical, and social science; community and social service; legal occupations	412	8.25	4.70–11.80	0.62	0.40–0.97
Computer operators, typists, office and administrative support workers	300	8.13	4.98–11.27	0.64	0.42–0.98
First-line supervisors/managers of production and operating workers	97	**
Bakers, butchers, food roasting, food batchmakers, food cooking machine operators	89	**
Farm, ranch and other agricultural managers; farmers and ranchers	97	**
Woodworkers (cabinetmakers, furniture finishers, model makers, sawing and woodworking machine operators)	38	**
Operators (power plant, boiler, water and liquid waste treatment plant, chemical processing machine, extruding machine, furnace), crushing workers, cutting worker	78	**
Armed forces	79	**

CI, confidence interval.

^*RSE for the estimated prevalence with airflow obstruction >30% and ≤36%.

^**RSE for the estimated prevalence with airflow obstruction >36% and results are not presented.

^aAge-standardized prevalence estimates were based on the age distribution of the 2000 U.S. Census Population 18–79 age structure. NHANES examination sampling weights were used for airflow obstruction.

^bThe occupation groups were created by combining four-digit occupation codes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2002 version of its Occupation and Industry coding system.

^c33 participants were missing occupation data or were uncodable.

^dPOR adjusted for age, gender, race/Hispanic origin, and smoking status.