Lifetime occupational history and risk of endometriosis
Marino, Holt, Chen, Davis
4/17/2007
| Abstract |
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| Background: Endometriosis is the presence of functioning endometrial glands and stroma outside the uterine cavity, most often in the pelvic peritoneal cavity. Women with endometriosis commonly have dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, pain, menorrhagia and/or metrorrhagia; disease complications can include adhesions, chronic pain, and infertility. This exploratory case-control study investigated the relationship between lifetime occupational history and surgically confirmed endometriosis in a population-based sample.Methods: Interviews were conducted with cases, all reproductive-aged female enrollees of a large health-maintenance organization first diagnosed with surgically confirmed endometriosis between April 1, 1996 and March 31, 2001 and randomly selected controls from the reproductive-aged female enrollee list from the same time period. Each reported job was coded using US Census Occupations and Industries codes, and jobs were classed into categories. Having ever worked an occupation in a given job class was compared to never having done so using unconditional logistic regression.Results: Having ever worked as a flight attendant, service station attendant, or health worker, particularly as a nurse or health aide, was associated with increased risk of endometriosis (flight attendant: OR 9.80, 95% CI 1.08 – 89.02; service station attendant: OR 5.77, 95% CI 1.03 -32.43; health worker: OR 1.49, 95% CI 1.03 – 2.15). Income and education did not make a difference in the odds ratio estimates for the occupations examined. Conclusion:
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