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Occupational sunlight exposure in relation to suicide among electric utility workers
Author(s) -
van Wijngaarden Edwin,
Savitz David A.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0274(200008)38:2<149::aid-ajim5>3.0.co;2-9
Subject(s) - medicine , sunlight , occupational safety and health , cohort , environmental health , occupational exposure , cohort study , injury prevention , demography , poison control , suicide prevention , odds ratio , occupational medicine , pathology , physics , astronomy , sociology
Background Occupational sunlight exposure was examined in relation to death from suicide in a United States cohort of 138,905 male electric utility workers. Methods Case‐control sampling included 536 deaths from suicide and 5,348 eligible controls randomly selected from the cohort. Exposure was classified based on work history linked to indices of cumulative sunlight exposure. Results Mortality from suicide was not associated with estimates of recent and career occupational sunlight exposure, with adjusted odds ratios around unity. Occupational sunlight exposure was positively associated with nonviolent suicides, but no dose‐response gradient was observed and risk estimates were notably imprecise. Conclusions These data provide evidence against an association between occupational sunlight exposure and mortality from suicide. Am. J. Ind. Med. 38:149–154, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.