Statistical techniques applied to environmental health sciences

National Institute Of Environmental Health Sciences

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

We have recently guided the data analysis for several projects, primarily involving data from the Agricultural Health Study (AHS), a cohort of licensed pesticide applicators (mostly farmers) from Iowa and North Carolina. We assessed associations between pesticide use and other farm exposures and incident hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism in female spouses of farmers in the AHS using the Cox proportional hazards model. We identified 1627 hypothyroid and 531 hyperthyroid cases over 20 years of follow-up. Several individual pesticides were associated with increased risk of hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism, although some pesticides were associated with decreased risk. Some of the findings, specifically associations with fungicides, are consistent with results from an earlier analysis of prevalent diseases in AHS spouses. Using a data from the Agricultural Lung Health Study (ALHSS) (a sub-study of the AHS), we published the first epidemiological study investigating the association of pesticide exposure and sleep apnea. Our results in a male agricultural population suggest that exposure to carbofuran is positively associated with sleep apnea. In another paper using ALHS data, we identified farming-exposures related to bacterial communities in house dust. Understanding the determinants of the indoor microbiota is the first step toward understanding potential relationships with health outcomes. In a third paper from the ALHS, we found that raw milk consumption in childhood was associated with higher pulmonary function in adulthood. (see also Z01 ES102385; PI Stephanie London, EB.)