Two-Phase Occupational Screening in Coal-Fired Power Plant Workers: Anamnestic Risk Stratification and Targeted Low-Dose CT Findings

Background

Employees at coal-fired power plants experience cumulative occupational exposure to respirable particulates alongside a high prevalence of smoking, both contributing to chronic respiratory disease and elevated lung cancer risk, and organized-screening implementation data remain scarce in this specific industrial setting outside asbestos-exposed cohorts. We evaluated a two-step occupational screening strategy integrating an anamnestic questionnaire with targeted low-dose CT (LDCT) imaging, assessing risk distribution, structured imaging findings, and the discriminative value of questionnaire-based triage relative to its underlying continuous predictors.