Pesticide Exposure And Neurologic Function In Farmworker

目的：描述农场工人亚临床神经功能障碍与以下因素的关系： 慢性农药暴露的生活方式因素，包括酒精使用影响农药代谢的遗传多态性，如对氧磷酶。 成就：该研究在两个地点进行：Apopka是奥兰多的郊区，有一个分散的农场工人社区，从事许多作物的工作，而Pierson是一个乡村小镇，有一个紧密团结的农场工人社区，主要从事蕨类植物的工作。在Apopka，90%的接触工人进行了筛查，79%的合格工人参加了研究;皮尔森的相应比例分别为94%和85%。这些应答率与多阶段招募过程的流行病学研究中通常观察到的应答率相似。我们总共招募了352人。根据筛选访谈的数据，其中95人为未暴露对照组，257人暴露于一种或多种类别。我们已经描述了结果变量及其与协变量的关系。许多结果似乎与描述种族，教育和文化适应的变量有关。虽然这是预期的结果与认知功能，我们已经发现了类似的关系与结果相关的运动或感觉功能。这表明，协变量可能与农药暴露指数高度相关，对进一步分析构成挑战。我们的下一步将是定义和描述农药暴露变量，并将暴露与结果联系起来。

Aims: To characterize the relationship of subclinical neurologic dysfunction in farmworkers to: chronic pesticide exposure lifestyle factors including alcohol use genetic polymorphisms affecting pesticide metabolism, eg paraoxonase. Accomplishments: The study was conducted at two sites: Apopka is a suburb of Orlando, with a diffuse farmworker community working on many crops, while Pierson is a small rural town with a tightly knit farmworker community working mainly on ferns. In Apopka, 90% of contacted workers were screened and 79% of eligible workers participated in the study; corresponding proportions in Pierson were 94% and 85%. These response rates are similar to what is typically seen in epidemiologic studies with multistage recruiting processes. We enrolled 352 individuals in all. Based on data from the screening interview, 95 of these individuals were unexposed controls and 257 were exposed in one or more categories. We have characterized the outcome variables and their relationship to covariates. Many outcomes appear to be related to variables describing ethnicity, education, and acculturation. Although this was expected for outcomes related to cognitive function, we have found similar relationships with outcomes related to motor or sensory function. This suggests that the covariates may be highly correlated with indices of pesticide exposure, posing a challenge for further analysis. Our next steps will be to define and characterize pesticide exposure variables, and to relate exposure to outcome.