Open AccessRisk of spontaneous abortion among nurses handling antineoplastic drugs.
Author(s) -
Isabelle Stücker,
J. F. Caillard,
R. Collin,
Michèle Gout,
Danièle Poyen,
Denis Hémon
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of work, environment and health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.621
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1795-990X
pISSN - 0355-3140
DOI - 10.5271/sjweh.1811
Subject(s) - abortion , medicine , odds ratio , obstetrics , pregnancy , antineoplastic drugs , gynecology , obstetric history , retrospective cohort study , gestation , surgery , genetics , pharmacology , biology
The purpose of the study was to evaluate the frequency of spontaneous abortion in two groups of women. One group consisted of women regularly involved in the preparation of cancer chemotherapy perfusions and therefore considered to be exposed to cytostatic agents; the other consisted of women not occupationally exposed to such agents. The study was carried out in four French hospitals. Four hundred and sixty-six women were involved; 534 pregnancies were described in which 139 were exposed and 357 were unexposed. The results showed that the frequency of spontaneous abortion was 26% for the exposed pregnancies and 15% in the unexposed ones (odds ratio 2.0). These results do not seem to be due either to the classic risk factors of spontaneous abortion (age, cigarette consumption during pregnancy, pregnancy order) (adjusted odds ratio 1.7) or to possible errors concerning the retrospective evaluation of prior gynecologic and obstetric history.