RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A nationwide follow-up study of occupational organic dust exposure and risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
JF Occupational and Environmental Medicine
JO Occup Environ Med
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP 105
OP 113
DO 10.1136/oemed-2018-105323
VO 76
IS 2
A1 Anne Vested
A1 Ioannis Basinas
A1 Alex Burdorf
A1 Grethe Elholm
A1 Dick J J Heederik
A1 Gitte H Jacobsen
A1 Henrik A Kolstad
A1 Hans Kromhout
A1 Øyvind Omland
A1 Torben Sigsgaard
A1 Ane M Thulstrup
A1 Gunnar Toft
A1 Jesper M Vestergaard
A1 Inge M Wouters
A1 Vivi Schlünssen
YR 2019
UL http://oem.bmj.com/content/76/2/105.abstract
AB Objectives To study exposure-response relations between cumulative organic dust exposure and incident chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) among subjects employed in the Danish farming and wood industry.Methods We studied exposure-response relations between cumulative organic dust exposure and incident COPD (1997–2013) among individuals born during 1950–1977 in Denmark ever employed in the farming or wood industry (n=1 75 409). Industry-specific employment history (1964–2007), combined with time-dependent farming and wood industry-specific exposure matrices defined cumulative exposure. We used logistic regression analysis with discrete survival function adjusting for age, sex and calendar year. Adjustment for smoking status was explored in a subgroup of 4023 with smoking information available.Results Cumulative organic dust exposure was inversely associated with COPD (adjusted rate ratios (RRadj (95% CIs) of 0.90 (0.82 to 0.99), 0.76 (0.69 to 0.84) and 0.52 (0.47 to 0.58) for intermediate-low, intermediate-high and high exposure quartiles, respectively, compared with the lowest exposure quartile). Lagging exposure 10 years was not consistently suggestive of an association between cumulative exposure and COPD; RRadj (95% CI): 1.05 (0.94 to 1.16), 0.92 (0.83 to 1.02) and 0.63 (0.56 to 0.70). Additional stratification by duration of employment showed no clear association between organic dust exposure and COPD except for the longer exposed (15–40 years) where an inverse association was indicated. Subgroup analyses showed that smoking had no impact on exposure-response estimates.Conclusions Our findings show no increased risk of COPD with increasing occupational exposure to organic dust in the farming or wood industry. Potential residual confounding by smoking can, however, not be ruled out.