Hypertension Risk in Coal Miners after Healthy Hire Effect Elimination
,
Abstract
Healthy hire effect (HHE) is considered as an epidemiological phenomenon, complicating the assessment of a true cause - effect relationship between occupational exposure and health status of workers. The current study was aimed at identification and elimination of HHE in the risk assessment of arterial hypertension (AH) in coal miners. Overall, 1553 miners, working in West Siberia, were enrolled in the cross-sectional cohort study of risks for AH, the control group included 2266 subjects from ther industrial sectors. The HHE identification was carried out with RR values in the age groups. A method of HHE elimination designed with analytical age-adjustment of hypertension rate in the studied group with the subsequent recalculation of the RR was implemented and tested. Initial data suggested a low risk of hypertension development in coal miners (RR = 0.58, 95 % CI 0,53:0,64) compared to workers of other industrial sectors. Elimination of HHE resulted in an increase of risk for hypertension in coal miners (RR = 1.11, 95 % CI 1,04:1,19). HHE reports that the health status of subjects, employed in the coal industry sector, is better compared to the other working population, resulting in lower incidence of hypertension. The application of the HHE elimination method resulted in the opposite results of professional affiliation impact on the incidence of hypertension compared to the initial data.
McGeoghegan D, Binks K, Gillies M, Jones S, Whaley S. The non-cancer mortality experience of male workers at British Nuclear Fuels plc, 1946-2005. Int J Epidemiol 2008; 37: 506- 518.
Arrighi HM, Hertz-Picciotto I. The evolving concept of the healthy worker survivor effect. Epidemiology 1994; 5: 189-196.
Li CY, Sung FC. A review of the healthy worker effect in occupational epidemiology. Occup Med (Lond) 1999; 49: 225- 229.
Le Moual N, Kauffmann F, Eisen EA, Kennedy SM. The healthy worker effect in asthma: work may cause asthma, but asthma may also influence work. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2008; 177: 4-10.
Enterline PE. Comments on the “healthy worker effect” in occupational epidemiology. In: Reports to the Workers’ Compensation Board on the Healthy Worker Effect. Toronto, Canada: Ministry of Labour of the Government of Ontario, ISDP Report 3. 1988; Available from: http://www.canoshweb.org/odp/html/ JUL1988.htm.
Skrobonja A, Kontosic I. Arterial hypertension in correlation with age and body mass index in some occupational groups in the harbor of Rijeka, Croatia. Ind Health 1998; 36: 312-317.
Maksimov SA, Skripchenko AE, Indukaeva EV et al. Age features of epidemiology of arterial hypertension in workers of the coal-mining enterprises. Adv Gerontol 2011; 24: 697-700.
Jovanovic J, Jovanovic M. Occupational stress and arterial hypertension. Med Pregl 2004; 57: 153-158.
Narlawar UW, Surjuse BG, Tharke SS. Hypertension and hearing impairment in workers of iron and steel industry. Indian J Physiol Pharmacol 2006; 50: 60-66.
Vangelova KK, Deyanov CE. Blood pressure and serum lipids in industrial workers under intense noise and a hot environment. Rev Environ Health 2007; 22: 303-311.
Chang TY, Wang VS, Hwang BF et al. Effects of co-exposure to noise and mixture of organic solvents on blood pressure. J Occup Health 2009; 51: 332-339.
Kirkutis A, Norkiene S, Griciene P et al. Prevalence of hypertension in Lithuanian mariners. Proc West Pharmacol Soc 2004; 47: 71-75.
Idahosa PE. Hypertension: an ongoing health hazard in Nigerian workers. Am J Epidemiol 1987; 125: 85-91.
Navas-Acien A, Sharrett A, Sibergeld EK et al. Arsenic exposure and cardiovascular disease: a systematic review of the epidemiologic evidence. Am J Epidemiol 2005; 162: 1037-1049.
Choi BC. A technique to re-assess epidemiologic evidence in light of the healthy worker effect: the case of firefighting and heart disease. J Occup Environ Med 2000; 42: 1021-1034.
McMichael AJ. Standardized mortality ratios and the «healthy worker effect»: scratching beneath the surface. J Occup Med 1976; 18: 165-168.
Qiao R, Wang M, Wang Z. Methodology for controlling healthy worker effect on coal miners' mortality. J West China University Med Sci 1996; 27: 90-93.
Sterling TD, Weinkam JJ. Observations on possible sources, extent, persistence, constancy, and corrections for the healthy worker effect. In: Reports to the Workers’ Compensation Board on the Healthy Worker Effect. Toronto, Canada: Ministry of Labour of the Government of Ontario, ISDP Report 3. 1988; Available from: http://www.canoshweb.org/odp/html/ JUL1988. htm.
Eisen EA, Holcroft CA, Greaves IA et al. A strategy to reduce healthy worker effect in a cross-sectional study of asthma and metalworking fluids. Am J Ind Med 1997; 31: 671-677.
Chevrier J, Picciotto S, Eisen EA. A comparison of standard methods with G-estimation of accelerated failure-time models to address the healthy-worker survivor effect: application in cohort of autoworkers exposed to metalworking fluids. Epidemiology 2012; 23: 212-219.
Dumas O, Le Moual N, Siroux V et al. Marginal structural models to quantify and control for the healthy worker effect in asthma: results from the EGEA study. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2012; 185: A1175.
Arrighi HM, Hertz-Picciotto I. Controlling the healthy worker survivor effect: an example of arsenic exposure and respiratory cancer. Occup Environ Med 1996; 53: 455-462.
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 6 No 3 (2014) | |
| Section | Original Article(s) | |
| Published | 2015-10-11 | |
| Keywords | ||
| Healthy worker effect Arterial hypertension Coal miners Epidemiology Mathematical methods | ||
| Rights and permissions | |
|
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. |
