Mortensen J T, Brønnum-Hansen H, Rasmussen K
Department of Occupational Medicine, Regional Hospital of Aalborg, Denmark.
Epidemiology. 1998 Mar;9(2):168-171.
We investigated a possible causal relation between exposure to organic solvents in Danish workers (housepainters, typographers/printers, carpenters/cabinetmakers) and onset of multiple sclerosis. Data on men included in the Danish Multiple Sclerosis Register (3,241 men) were linked with data from the 1970 census from the National Bureau of Statistics in Denmark, which has data on occupational status for 1,768,846 men between 15 and 74 years of age. From this census, we ascertained a group of 124,766 "solvent-exposed" men and an "unexposed" group of 87,501 male electricians, bricklayers, and butchers. Over a follow-up period of 20 years, we observed no increase in the incidence of multiple sclerosis among men presumed to be exposed to organic solvents. It was not possible to obtain data on potential confounders, and the study design has some potential for selection bias. Nevertheless, the study does not support existing hypotheses regarding an association between occupational exposure to organic solvents and multiple sclerosis.
我们调查了丹麦工人（房屋油漆工、排字工人/印刷工、木匠/细木工）接触有机溶剂与多发性硬化症发病之间可能存在的因果关系。丹麦多发性硬化症登记处（3241名男性）所纳入男性的数据，与丹麦国家统计局1970年人口普查数据相关联，后者包含15至74岁之间1768846名男性的职业状况数据。通过此次人口普查，我们确定了一组124766名“接触溶剂”男性以及一组87501名男性电工、泥瓦匠和屠夫组成的“未接触”组。在20年的随访期内，我们观察到，推测接触有机溶剂的男性中，多发性硬化症发病率并未升高。由于无法获取潜在混杂因素的数据，且该研究设计存在一定的选择偏倚可能性。尽管如此，该研究并不支持现有关于职业接触有机溶剂与多发性硬化症之间关联的假说。
