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These findings suggest that K-JCQ is valid and reliable for assessing psychosocial job stress among Korean workers. Macro-level decision latitude showed a separate factorial structure and was strongly associated with task-level decision latitude.

We examined the association of long-term, daily 1-h maximum O 3 (ozone) exposures on cause-specific mortality for 22.2 million US Medicare beneficiaries between 2000-2008. We modeled the association between O 3 and mortality using agegender-race stratified log-linear regression models, adjusted for state of residence. We examined confounding by (1) adjusting for PM 2.5 (particles with aerodynamic diameters <2.5 μm) and NO 2 (nitrogen dioxide) exposures, temperature, and neighborhood-level characteristics and behaviors, and (2) decomposing O 3 into its temporal and spatio-temporal components and comparing estimated risk ratios. We also examined sensitivity of our results to alternate exposure measures based on warm-season 8-h daily maximum and 24-h average exposures. We found increased risks from long-term O 3 exposures to be strongest and most consistent for mortality from respiratory disease (1.030, 95% CI: 1.027, 1.034) (including COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)), CHF (congestive heart failure), and lung cancer (1.015, 95% CI: 1.010, 1.020), with no evidence of confounding by PM 2.5 , NO 2 , and temperature and with results similar across O 3 exposure measures. While significant, associations between long-term O 3 exposures and CVD (cardiovascular)-related mortality (1.005, 95% CI: 1.003, 1.007) were confounded by PM 2.5 and varied with the exposure measure, with associations no longer significantly positive when warm-season 8-h maximum or 24-h average O 3 was used to assess exposures. In this large study, we provide strong evidence that O 3 exposure is associated with mortality from respiratory-related causes and for the first-time, lung cancer, but raise questions regarding O 3 -related impacts on CVD mortality. Our findings demonstrate the need to further identify potential confounders.

Background The shape of the exposure-response curve for long-term ambient fine particulate (PM2.5) exposure and cause-specific mortality is poorly understood, especially for rural populations and underrepresented minorities. Methods We used hybrid machine learning and Cox proportional hazard models to assess the association of long-term PM2.5 exposures on specific causes of death for 53 million U.S. Medicare beneficiaries (aged ≥65) from 2000 to 2008. Models included strata for age, sex, race, and ZIP code and controlled for neighborhood socio-economic status (SES) in our main analyses, with approximately 4 billion person-months of follow-up, and additionally for warm season average of 1-h daily maximum ozone exposures in a sensitivity analysis. The impact of non-traffic PM2.5 on mortality was examined using two stage models of PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Results A 10 μg /m3 increase in 12-month average PM2.5 prior to death was associated with a 5% increase in all-cause mortality, as well as an 8.8, 5.6, and 2.5% increase in all cardiovascular disease (CVD)-, all respiratory-, and all cancer deaths, respectively, in age, gender, race, ZIP code, and SES-adjusted models. PM2.5 exposures, however, were not associated with lung cancer mortality. Results were not sensitive to control for ozone exposures. PM2.5-mortality associations for CVD- and respiratory-related causes were positive and significant for beneficiaries irrespective of their sex, race, age, SES and urbanicity, with no evidence of a lower threshold for response or of lower Risk Ratios (RRs) at low PM2.5 levels. Associations between PM2.5 and CVD and respiratory mortality were linear and were higher for younger, Black and urban beneficiaries, but were largely similar by SES. Risks associated with non-traffic PM2.5 were lower than that for all PM2.5 and were null for respiratory and lung cancer-related deaths. Conclusions PM2.5 was associated with mortality from CVD, respiratory, and all cancer, but not lung cancer. PM2.5-associated risks of CVD and respiratory mortality were similar across PM2.5 levels, with no evidence of a threshold. Blacks, urban, and younger beneficiaries were most vulnerable to the long-term impacts of PM2.5 on mortality.

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Background: No studies have examined the association between cumulative low-level lead exposure and the prospective development of electrocardiographic conduction abnormalities, which may mediate the association between lead and several cardiovascular end points.Objective: We prospectively examined the association between lead exposure and the development of electrocardiographic conduction abnormalities.Methods: We assessed blood lead, bone lead—a biomarker of cumulative lead exposure—measured with K-shell X-ray fluorescence, and electrocardiographic end points among 600 men in the Normative Aging Study who were free of electrocardiographic abnormalities at the time of the baseline ECG. Of these men, we had follow-up data from a second electrocardiogram for 496 men 8.1 (SD = 3.1) years later, on average. We used repeated measures linear regression to analyze change in electrocardiographic conduction timing and logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for developing specific conduction disturbances and adjusted for potential confounders.Results: Mean (± SD) blood (5.8 ± 3.6), patella bone (30.3 ± 17.7), and tibia bone (21.6 ± 12.0) lead concentrations were similar to those found in samples from the general U.S. population and much lower than those reported in occupationally exposed groups. Compared with those in the lowest tertile of tibia lead, those in the highest had a 7.94-ms (95% CI, 1.42–14.45) increase in heart rate–corrected QT (QTc) interval and a 5.94-ms increase in heart rate–corrected QRS (95% CI, 1.66–10.22) duration > 8 years. Those in the highest tertile of tibia lead also had increased odds of QT prolongation (QTc ≥ 440 msec; OR = 2.53; 95% CI, 1.22–5.25) and JT prolongation (heart rate–corrected JT > 360 msec; OR = 2.53; 95% CI, 0.93–6.91). Results were weaker for patella lead. No associations were identified with blood lead.Conclusions: This study suggests that low-level cumulative exposure to lead is associated with worse future cardiac conductivity in the ventricular myocardium, as reflected in QT interval characteristics.

Objective To examine whether functional polymorphisms in hemochromatosis (HFE; H63D and C282Y), transferrin (TfC2), and glutathione-s-transferase Pi1 (GSTP1; Ile105Val) genes modify any lead-ALS association. Methods We measured blood lead using atomic absorption spectroscopy and bone lead—a biomarker of cumulative lead exposure—using K-shell-X-ray fluorescence in 100 neurologist-confirmed ALS cases and 194 controls, the latter recruited as part of two separate studies; all subjects lived in New England. Participants were considered variant carriers or wild-type for each polymorphism. To assess effect modification, we included cross-product terms between lead biomarkers and each polymorphism in separate adjusted polytomous logistic regression models. Results Compared with wild-type, the odds ratio (OR) per 15.6µg/g patella lead (interquartile range; IQR) was 8.24 (95% CI: 0.94–72.19) times greater among C282Y variant carriers, and 0.34 (95% CI: 0.15–0.78) times smaller among H63D variant carriers. Results were weaker for tibia lead. Compared with wild-type the OR per 2µg/dL blood lead (IQR) was 0.36 (95% CI: 0.19–0.68) times smaller among H63D variant carriers, and 1.96 (95% CI: 0.98–3.92) times greater among GSTP1 variant carriers. Conclusions We found that HFE and GSTP1 genotypes modified the association between lead biomarkers and ALS. Opposite modification by the HFE polymorphisms H63D and C282Y may suggest that the modification is not simply the result of increased iron.