Kirrane Ellen F, Hoppin Jane A, Kamel Freya, Umbach David M, Boyes William K, Deroos Anneclaire J, Alavanja Michael, Sandler Dale P
Coda, Inc., Durham, NC 27709, USA.
Am J Epidemiol. 2005 Jun 1;161(11):1020-9. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwi140.
Retinal degeneration is the leading cause of visual impairment in older adults. An association between retinal degeneration and fungicide use was observed previously among farmer pesticide applicators in the Agricultural Health Study, a large study of farm families from Iowa and North Carolina. The objective of this investigation was to determine whether wives of these farmer pesticide applicators were at increased risk of retinal degeneration. Self-reported cross-sectional data obtained via questionnaire between 1993 and 1997 from 31,173 wives were used. Associations of specific pesticides and groups of pesticides based on function (fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, and fumigants) or chemical structure (organophosphates, organochlorines, and carbamates) with eye disorders were evaluated using logistic and hierarchical logistic regression analyses. Self-reported retinal degeneration was associated with the wife's fungicide use (odds ratio = 1.9, 95% confidence interval: 1.2, 3.1) after adjustment for age and state of residence. Specific fungicides that appeared to drive this association were maneb or mancozeb and ziram. No associations between pesticide use and other eye disorders were found. Although these findings for retinal degeneration are based solely on self-reported disease, they are consistent with those reported for farmer pesticide applicators. These findings suggest that exposure to some fungicides and other pesticides may increase the risk of retinal degeneration and warrant further investigation.
视网膜变性是老年人视力损害的主要原因。在农业健康研究中，此前在爱荷华州和北卡罗来纳州的农场家庭的大型研究中，观察到农民农药施用者中视网膜变性与使用杀真菌剂之间存在关联。本调查的目的是确定这些农民农药施用者的妻子是否患视网膜变性的风险增加。使用了1993年至1997年期间通过问卷调查从31173名妻子那里获得的自我报告横断面数据。基于功能（杀真菌剂、除草剂、杀虫剂和熏蒸剂）或化学结构（有机磷、有机氯和氨基甲酸盐）的特定农药和农药组与眼部疾病的关联，使用逻辑回归和分层逻辑回归分析进行了评估。在调整年龄和居住州后，自我报告的视网膜变性与妻子使用杀真菌剂有关（比值比=1.9，95%置信区间：1.2，3.1）。似乎导致这种关联的特定杀真菌剂是代森锰锌或代森锰和福美锌。未发现农药使用与其他眼部疾病之间存在关联。尽管这些关于视网膜变性的发现仅基于自我报告的疾病，但它们与农民农药施用者报告的结果一致。这些发现表明，接触某些杀真菌剂和其他农药可能会增加视网膜变性的风险，值得进一步研究。
