TOXICS AGENTS, REPRODUCTIVE OUTCOMES AND HOSPITAL WORK

医院工作人员是美国第三大雇员群体 美国，大约有300万人。这些工人中的大多数是 有超过75%的妇女是育龄妇女。众所周知， 这些人接触过各种已知的影响因素。 繁殖。例如，传染病是一种明显的危险。 医院的工作和几种已知的感染源是生殖性的 危险。暴露在麻醉剂气体和电离辐射中 被发现会增加自然流产的风险。到目前为止，一个系统的 对这一群体的生育经历的研究尚未得到 已尝试。因此，这项研究的目的是确定是否 医院工作人员面临着更大的生殖不良后果风险。 这项拟议的研究是一项关于出生结果的病例对照分析， 大量医院工作人员，旨在确定两者之间的关联 医院行业内的暴露和选定的不良生殖 结果。检查的主要结果是低出生体重儿。 (少于2,500克)。医院子女中的先天异常 工人也将接受检查，但样本大小可能会限制 发现除显著增加的风险外的所有风险。进行这项工作的能力 研究取决于我们与国家1199区的长期关系 医院和卫生保健工作者工会，代表130,000多人 全国各地的会员。工会将提供全面的健康保障，并 会员记录。来自工会综合福利计划和 出生证明将用于识别病例和控制措施。一个 对病例和控制措施进行的结构化电话采访将 提供有关职业历史、工作地点和职责的数据以及 具体的曝光。我们还将收集关于社会经济的信息 因素、生育史和其他潜在的混杂变量。 数据分析将探索和衡量两者之间的关联强度 暴露和选定的生殖结果。的影响 将对潜在的混杂变量进行评估。我们相信这一点 研究提供了一个独特的机会来评估 医院暴露和不良生殖后果，例如低出生体重 以及一大群职业女性和男性的先天畸形。

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.