Objectives In view of the debate of factors in Dupuytren’s disease, we aimed to describe its relationship with certain occupational factors, alcohol intake and smoking.

Setting The French GAZEL cohort (employees of Electricité de France and Gaz de France).

Participants Participants of the cohort who answered a questionnaire in 2012, that is, 13 587 participants (73.7% of the questionnaire sent). In 2007, self-assessed lifetime occupational biomechanical exposure was recorded (carrying loads, manipulating a vibrating tool and climbing stairs), as well as alcohol intake, smoking and diabetes mellitus. Analyses were performed on high alcohol intake, smoking and duration of relevant work exposure, stratified by gender.

Primary and secondary outcome measures From a specific question on Dupuytren’s disease assessed in 2012, the outcome measures were self-reported Dupuytren’s disease (yes/no) and disabling Dupuytren’s disease (including surgery).

Results A total of 10 017 men and 3570 women, aged 64–73 years, were included; the mean age for men was 68 years and for women was 65 years. Among men, the following were significantly associated with Dupuytren’s disease: age (OR 1.03 (1.00; 1.06)), diabetes (OR 1.31 (1.07; 1.60)), heavy drinking (OR 1.36 (1.10; 1.69)) and over 15 years of manipulating a vibrating tool at work (OR 1.52 (1.15; 2.02)); except for diabetes, the association with these factors was stronger for disabling Dupuytren’s disease (or surgery), with OR 1.07 (1.03; 1.11), 1.71 (1.25; 2.33) and 1.98(1.34; 2.91), respectively, for age, heavy drinking and over 15 years of manipulating a vibrating tool at work. Among the 3570 women included, 160 reported Dupuytren’s disease (4.5%). The number of cases in the group of women was too low to reach conclusions, although the findings seemed similar for age, diabetes and vibration exposure.

Conclusions In this large French cohort study, Dupuytren’s disease in men was associated with high levels of alcohol consumption and exposure to hand-transmitted vibration. It is likely that the same applied to women.