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Mortality patterns by occupation in a cohort of electric utility workers
Author(s) -
van Wijngaarden Edwin,
Savitz David A.,
Kleckner Robert C.,
Kavet Robert,
Loomis Dana
Publication year - 2001
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/ajim.10015
Subject(s) - medicine , poisson regression , cohort , cohort study , occupational medicine , disease , mortality rate , occupational disease , relative risk , demography , cancer , lung cancer , environmental health , occupational exposure , gerontology , surgery , confidence interval , population , sociology
Background Mortality patterns were examined in a United States cohort of 138,905 male electric utility workers from five companies to help interpret previous studies of health effects in this industry. Methods Using Poisson regression techniques, internal cohort analyses examined total mortality, cardiovascular disease, and cancer in relation to duration of employment in each of nineteen occupational categories which comprise utility operations. Results Relative to workers who were never involved in utility operations (e.g., administrative workers), mortality rate ratios among operations workers were higher for total mortality, cardiovascular disease, and total cancer. Lung cancer risk was consistently elevated, whereas increased mortality for other cancers was less consistent. Conclusions The results of this study indicate excess risk of total mortality, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers among electric utility workers, which could be related to both occupational and non‐occupational risk factors. Am. J. Ind. Med. 40:667–673, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc