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Document ID (ISN)73354
CIS number 99-1189
ISSN - Serial title 0271-3586 - American Journal of Industrial Medicine
Year 1999
Convention or series no.
Author(s) Langholz B., Thomas D., Xiang A., Stram D.
Title Latency analysis in epidemiologic studies of occupational exposures: Application to the Colorado Plateau uranium miners cohort
Bibliographic information Mar. 1999, Vol.35, No.3, p.246-256. Illus. 28 ref.
Abstract A general statistical framework for modelling latency effects is described. Bilinear and exponential decay latency models are proposed and methods are described for fitting these models to cohort or case-control data. A latency analysis of radon exposure and lung cancer in the Colorado Plateau uranium miners cohort was performed. Analysis of the entire cohort showed that the relative risk associated with exposure increased for about 8.5 years and thereafter decreased until it reached background levels after about 34 years. The hypothesis that the relative risk remains at its peak level is strongly rejected. The variation in the latency effects over subsets of the cohort based on attained age, level and rate of exposure, and smoking was investigated. Age was the only factor for which effect modification was demonstrated. The decline in effect was much steeper at older ages than younger ages. The proposed methods can provide much more information about the exposure-disease latency effects than those generally used. Topics: age-linked differences; radon; case-control study; cohort study; epidemiology; hazard evaluation; latency; long-term exposure; lung cancer; mathematical models; uranium mining.
Descriptors (primary) latency; epidemiology; uranium mining; long-term exposure; hazard evaluation
Descriptors (secondary) radon; lung cancer; mathematical models; cohort study; age-linked differences; case-control study
Document type D - Periodical articles
Country / State or ProvinceUSA
Subject(s) Medicine, hygiene and first aid
Broad subject area(s) Occupational medicine, epidemiology
Browse category(ies) Epidemiology
Mining and quarrying
Radon
Risk evaluation