Premium
Meta‐analysis of systemic sclerosis and exposure to solvents
Author(s) -
Aryal Bishwa K.,
Khuder Sadik A.,
Schaub Eric A.
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.1098
Subject(s) - medicine , occupational exposure , environmental health , dermatology , intensive care medicine
Background Although systemic sclerosis is a rare disease, incidence rates have increased recently in the United States. This study investigated the association between systemic sclerosis and exposure to solvents. Methods A Medline search of articles published between 1966 and 2000 dealing with solvent exposure and systemic sclerosis identified eight studies that met inclusion criteria of the meta‐analysis. The studies included seven case‐control studies and one cohort study published between 1989 and 1998. A series of meta‐analyses of studies on systemic sclerosis and solvent exposure were performed for all studies and for case‐control studies. A random effect model was used to calculate a combined estimator of relative risk. Results The combined estimator of relative risk for all studies was 2.91, with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 1.60 to 5.30. The combined estimator of relative risk for the seven case‐control studies was 3.14 (95% CI, 1.56–6.33). Conclusions A statistically significant increased relative risk for all studies and for case‐control studies suggests that exposure to organic solvent may be a risk factor for developing systemic sclerosis. Further studies using other study designs and better control of confounders are needed. Am. J. Ind. Med. 40:271–274, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.