Inter-rater reliability of occupational exposure assessment in a case-control study of female breast cancer

Batisse, Emmanuelle; Labrèche, France; Goldberg, Mark S.; Lavoué, Jérôme; Parent, Marie‐Élise; Pasquet, Romain; Richardson, Lesley; Siemiatycki, Jack; Ho, Vikki

doi:10.1080/15459624.2021.1976412

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…An advantage of this study was the ability to attribute quantitative measures of occupational exposure, including frequency, duration, and concentration of exposure. We made use of a validated expert assessment approach to estimate occupational exposures 52,53 . This method is considered the gold standard for attributing exposure in retrospective studies 57 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using a hybrid expert‐based approach 52,53 which is an updated version of the expert‐based method developed by Gérin and colleagues, 53–55 a team of trained chemists and industrial hygienists unaware of case or control status of participants reviewed the occupational histories to assign standardized occupation and industry codes, and exposures for each job held, using a predefined list of 293 chemical and physical agents. This method of attributing exposure from detailed job histories using experts has been shown to be reliable 52,56–58 . A job was considered exposed if the expert determined that the agent was present in the workplace at levels above those found in the general environment.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This method of attributing exposure from detailed job histories using experts has been shown to be reliable. 52,[56][57][58] A job was considered exposed if the expert determined that the agent was present in the workplace at levels above those found in the general environment. Exposure was coded according to three dimensions: confidence that the exposure occurred ("possible," "probable," "definite"); relative concentration of exposure ("low," "medium," "high"), where low and high represented the extremes in the range of levels encountered in a work environment above levels normally found in the general environment; and frequency of exposure (ranging from more than 0% to 100% of an exposed workweek which was then transformed to hours per workweek).…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We made use of a validated expert assessment approach to estimate occupational exposures. 52,53 This method is considered the gold standard for attributing exposure in retrospective studies. 57 For the purposes of computing cumulative exposures, we converted the ordinal variable "concentration" to numerical quantities.…”

Section: Analyses By Hormonal Phenotypesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The association between the incidence of postmenopausal breast cancer and occupational exposure to selected organic solvents, Montreal, Canada, 2008–2011

Westra

Goldberg

Labrèche

et al. 2023

American J Industrial Med

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BackgroundBreast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer among women and recognized risk factors explain 25%–47% of cases. Organic solvents are used widely in the workplace and exposure may increase the risk of developing breast cancer, yet there are insufficient data to confirm this hypothesis. We sought to determine whether past occupational exposures to selected organic solvents were associated with the incidence of invasive breast cancer in postmenopausal women in Montréal, Canada.MethodsFrom a population‐based case–control study (2008–2011), using in‐depth interviews we elicited information on risk factors and lifetime occupational histories. Industrial hygienists and chemists translated job descriptions into specific chemical and physical exposures. We assessed 11 individual solvents and four solvent groups. Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for metrics of past exposures to selected solvents. Exposure metrics included any previous exposure, average frequency in hours per week, duration in years, and average cumulative concentration weighted by hours per workweek exposed.ResultsWe enrolled 695 cases and 608 controls. We found increased ORs for average cumulative concentration of exposure to mononuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (OR: 1.52, 95% CI: 1.04, 2.28), chlorinated alkanes (OR: 2.42, 95% CI: 1.23, 5.68), toluene (OR: 1.59, 95% CI: 1.02, 2.59), and a group of organic solvents with reactive metabolites (OR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.08, 2.24). Positive associations were found across all exposure metrics and were higher among women with estrogen‐positive/progesterone‐negative tumors.ConclusionOur findings suggest occupational exposure to certain organic solvents may increase the risk of incident postmenopausal breast cancer.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%