Evaluation of individual-based and group-based exposure estimation of microbial agents in health effects associated with a damp building

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cho SJ ; Cox-Ganser, Jean M. ; Kreiss, Kathleen ; Park, Ju-Hyeong
• Description:
  We evaluated attenuation in linear associations between microbial exposure and respiratory symptoms occurring when individual measurements of microbial agents were used for estimating employees' exposure compared with group means. Symptoms, which improved when away from the building (building-related, BR), and measurements of culturable fungi, ergosterol, and endotoxin in floor dust were obtained between 2001 and 2007 from four cross-sectional studies on occupants of a water-damaged building. We compared odds ratios from longitudinal health effect models using individual measurements at employees' workstations with those using floor (group) means. Estimated odds for BR respiratory symptoms in group-based analyses increased by 2 to 5 times compared with those from individual-based analyses for culturable fungi and ergosterol, although they were less precise. For endotoxin, we found substantially increased and significant odds in group-based analyses, while we found no associations in individual-based analyses for various symptoms. Our study suggested that the building floor was useful in constructing exposure groups for microbial agents in this water-damaged building for epidemiologic analysis. Our study showed that group-average exposure estimation provides less attenuated associations between exposures to microbial agents and health in damp indoor environments where measurement error and intrinsic temporal variability are often large. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollution, Indoor Dust Endotoxins Environmental Exposure Environmental Health Environmental Monitoring Environmental Pollution Epidemiology Fungi Microbiology Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety Surveys And Questionnaires

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• Keywords:
  Analytical-processes Author Keywords: Microbial Agent Biological-effects Damp Building Dust-analysis Dust-exposure Dust-measurement Dust-sampling Dusts Employee-exposure Environmental-exposure Environmental-pollution Exposure-assessment Exposure Estimation Floors Group-based Health-surveys Individual-based Indoor-air-pollution Indoor-environmental-quality Microorganisms Questionnaires Respiratory-system-disorders

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• ISSN:
  1559-0631
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DRDS - Division of Respiratory Disease Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  409-415
• Volume:
  23
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20041520
• Citation:
  J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 2013 Jul/Aug; 23(4):409-415
• Contact Point Address:
  Dr. Ju-Hyeong Park, Field Studies Branch, Division of Respiratory Disease Studies, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, MS 2800, 1095 Willowdale Road, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA
• Email:
  gzp8@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2013
• NORA Priority Area:
  Services
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:17ff1c73aec85af91198676e435a402e1740e270f215b4080691df97a8a5bccd411cff2f01dfece81be1714e56086be9d5acef423abcf74576c31e02a746cca0
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/194064/cdc_194064_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 514.80 KB ]