TOXICS AGENTS, REPRODUCTIVE OUTCOMES AND HOSPITAL WORK

医院工作人员是美国第三大雇员群体。 在美国，大约有300万人。 这些工人大多数是 超过75%是女性。 众所周知的是 这些个体暴露于多种已知会影响 生殖 例如，传染病是一种明显的危险， 医院工作和几种传染性病原体是已知的生殖 隐患 暴露在麻醉气体和电离辐射中， 增加自然流产的风险。 到目前为止，系统 对这一群体的生殖经验的研究还没有得到 企图。 因此，本研究的目的是确定是否 医院工作人员的不良生殖后果风险增加。 这项研究是一项对出生结局的病例对照分析， 大型医院工作人员队列，旨在确定 医院行业内的暴露和选定的不良生殖 结果。 要检查的主要结果是低出生体重儿 (less超过2，500克）。 先天性畸形，在医院的后代中 工人也将接受检查，但样本量可能会限制能力， 检测到所有的风险，但显着增加。 有能力进行这种 这项研究是基于我们与全国1199地区的长期关系， 医院和保健工作者工会，代表13万多人 全国会员。 欧盟将提供充分的医疗服务， 会员记录。 来自工会综合福利计划的数据， 出生证明将用于确定病例和对照。 一 与病例和对照组进行的结构化电话访谈将 提供有关职业历史、工作地点和职责的数据， 具体曝光。 我们还将收集有关社会经济 因素、生殖史和其他潜在的混杂变量。 数据分析将探索和测量 暴露和选定的生殖结果。 的影响 将评估潜在的混杂变量。 我们认为这 研究提供了一个独特的机会，以评估之间的关系， 医院暴露和不良生殖结果，例如低出生体重 和先天畸形的研究。

Hospital workers constitute the third largest employee group in the United States, about three million individuals. The majority of these workers are of reproductive age and over 75 percent are female. It is well known that these individuals have exposure to a wide variety of agents known to affect reproduction. For example, infectious diseases are an obvious hazard of hospital work and several infectious agents are known reproductive hazards. Exposure to anesthetic gasses and ionizing radiation have been found to increase the risk of spontaneous abortion. To date, a systematic study of the reproductive experiences of this group has not been attempted. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine whether hospital workers are at increased risk for adverse reproductive outcomes. The proposed study is a case-control analysis of birth outcomes within a large cohort of hospital workers, designed to identify associations between exposures within the hospital industry and selected adverse reproductive outcomes. The primary outcome to be examined is low birthweight infants (less than 2,500 g). Congenital anomalies, among offspring of hospital workers will also be examined but sample sizes may limit the ability to detect all but a marked increase in risk. The ability to conduct this study rests in our long standing relationship with District 1199, National Union of Hospital and Health Care Workers, representing over 130,000 members nationwide. The union will provide full access to its health and membership records. Data from the unions comprehensive benefit plan and birth certificates will be used to identify cases and controls. A structured telephone interview conducted with both cases and controls will provide data on occupational histories, job location and duties and specific exposures. We will also gather information on socioeconomic factors, reproductive history and other potentially confounding variables. Data analysis will explore and measure the strength of associations between exposures and the selected reproductive outcome. The influence of potential confounding variables will be assessed. We believe that this study provides an unique opportunity to assess the relationship between hospital exposures and adverse reproductive outcomes, e.g. low birthweight and congenital malformations in a large group of working women and men.