Question

You are called to investigate a possible health problem in an office building that may be due to an potential environmental toxin. You arrange with a company that occupies two levels of the building to follow all 300 office employees for 30 days. Every day the employees report their health status. Nothing happens until day 10, when 35 employees complain of respiratory distress. On day 20, 70 employees report of respiratory distress. The remaining employees do not report any problems over the 30 day period.

What is the incidence rate of respiratory distress in this study population?

Answer 1

The incident rate of respiratory distress among the employee are as following

After 10 the day the problem rose for 11 to 12 percentage(35 employees sick),i.e.,35/300*100

On 20th day it rose to 25 percentage of employees(70 employees sick)i.e.,70/300*100

Whereas remaining 75 percent of group has not reported any respiratory distress in 30 days

Total people affected: 100

Total employees :300

100/300*100= 33%

Hence the incidence rate is approximately 33% among the employees