Summary: | 碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 公共衛生學系碩士班 === 96 === Objectives: To investigate the all causes and major cause-specific risks of mortality among petrochemical manufacture industry employees in Taiwan.
Methods: We used a retrospective cohort study to examine the risks of all causes and cause-specific mortalities for 21,124 petrochemical employees. With the general population of Taiwan as the reference, we computed standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) for 1989 through 2005. We also used Poisson regression model to estimate the relative risk for all causes and specific cause mortalities from other major diseases in relation to the demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status and occupational exposure related variables.
Results: Employees experienced a significant deficit in mortalities from all causes (SMR=59, 95% CI=55-62) and all cancers (SMR=75, 95% CI=68-83), compared with the Taiwan general population. There was a significant increase in mortality risk of paraurethral glands (SMR=10000, 95% CI=203-86338), but it was based on only one case. No significant increases in SMRs were noted for other major causes. Regression analysis indicated that workers with lower education or older ages experienced higher relative risk of all causes and cause-specific mortalities. The mortality risks of all causes, neoplasms, malignant neoplasm of liver and accident events for male workers were higher than those for female workers. Unmarried employees had higher risks of mortality from all causes and accident than married subjects. The adjusted relative risk for chronic liver disease and cirrhosis among workers with labor insurance was elevated by 3.29 folds in comparison those with government employees insurance.
Conclusions: Our study doesn’t exhibit significant increases in mortalities from all causes and other major diseases among petrochemical employees as compared to Taiwan general population. Interpretation of study results could be limited due to certain methodological problems such as healthy worker effect and exposure misclassification. This study suggested that unmarried and low educated employees tended to experience elevated risks of mortality from all causes and certain causes, which warrant further attentions on heath status of these employees.
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