Teaching interventions in contact dermatitis.

Prevention of occupational contact dermatitis is of utmost significance for both insurers and legislators because it can preserve the individual's ability to work and result in decreased costs for public health. In the last 20 years, many concepts for educational interventions and a multitude of teaching aids have been developed by insurance associations and public institutions from different countries (eg, the United States, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany). For didactic purposes, terms of different levels of prevention have been inaugurated in northern Europe in the context of occupational dermatology. This review presents different educational interventions in the fields of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention as well as evaluation studies of these measures, especially among health care workers, hairdressers, metalworkers, and bakers' apprentices. Special emphasis is put on the prevention of allergic contact dermatitis.