Occupational and environmental medicine
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Comparison of exposure assessment methods for occupational carcinogens in a multi-centre lung cancer case-control study.
Retrospective exposure assessment remains a problematic aspect of population-based case-control studies. Different methods have been developed, including case-by-case expert assessment and job-exposure matrices (JEM). The present analyses compare exposure prevalence and risk estimates derived by different exposure assessment methods. ⋯ It has been previously advocated that the expert assessment approach to assign exposures based on detailed questionnaire responses provides more accurate exposure estimates than JEM-based results. However, current results demonstrated little, if any, advantage of case-by-case assessment when compared to a JEM approach.
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To investigate changes in blood pressure, blood lipids, blood sugar and haematological markers of inflammation associated with changes in long-term exposure to ambient air pollutants. ⋯ Changes in blood pressure, blood lipids, blood sugar and haematological markers of inflammation are associated with long-term exposure to ambient air pollutants. This might provide a link between air pollution and atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases.
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To investigate the association between airflow limitation and occupational exposure and to compare a fixed limit with an age adjusted limit for airflow limitation. ⋯ Prevalence of airflow limitation was higher in exposed than non-exposed employees. Both the FEV(1)/FVC ratio <0.7 and FEV(1)/FVC ratio
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The mechanisms that produce tinnitus are not fully understood. While tinnitus can be associated with diseases and disorders of the ear, retrocochlear diseases and vascular pathologies, there are few known risk factors for tinnitus apart from these conditions. There is anecdotal evidence of an link between mobile phone use and tinnitus, but so far there have been no systematic investigations into this possible association. ⋯ Mobile phone use should be included in future investigations as a potential risk factor for developing tinnitus.