Pesticide exposure and depression among male private pesticide applicators in the Agricultural Health Study

Details

• Personal Author:
  Alavanja MCR ; Beard JD ; Blair, Austin ; Hoppin JA ; Kamel F ; Richards M ; Sandler DP ; Umbach DM
• Description:
  Background: Pesticide exposure may be positively associated with depression. Few previous studies considered the episodic nature of depression or examined individual pesticides. Objective: We evaluated associations between pesticide exposure and depression among male private pesticide applicators in the Agricultural Health Study. Methods: We analyzed data for 10 pesticide classes and 50 specific pesticides used by 21,208 applicators enrolled in 1993-1997 who completed a follow-up telephone interview in 2005-2010. We divided applicators who reported a physician diagnosis of depression (n = 1,702; 8%) into those who reported a previous diagnosis of depression at enrollment but not follow-up (n = 474; 28%), at both enrollment and follow-up (n = 540; 32%), and at follow-up but not enrollment (n = 688; 40%) and used polytomous logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals. We used inverse probability weighting to adjust for potential confounders and to account for the exclusion of 3,315 applicators with missing covariate data and 24,619 who did not complete the follow-up interview. Results: After weighting for potential confounders, missing covariate data, and drop out, ever-use of two pesticide classes, fumigants and organochlorine insecticides, and seven individual pesticides-the fumigants aluminum phosphide and ethylene dibromide; the phenoxy herbicide (2,4,5-trichlorophenoxy)acetic acid (2,4,5-T); the organochlorine insecticide dieldrin; and the organophosphate insecticides diazinon, malathion, and parathion-were all positively associated with depression in each case group, with ORs between 1.1 and 1.9. Conclusions: Our study supports a positive association between pesticide exposure and depression, including associations with several specific pesticides. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Agriculture Chlorine Compounds Insecticides Men Mental Disorders Mental Health Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety
• Keywords:
  Agricultural-chemicals Exposure-levels Fumigants Humans Organo-chlorine-compounds Pesticides Pesticides-and-agricultural-chemicals Psychological-disorders Psychological-effects Psychology Risk-factors Statistical-analysis

  More +
• ISSN:
  0091-6765
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; North Carolina ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  122
• Issue:
  9
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20044473
• Citation:
  Environ Health Perspect 2014 Sep; 122(9):984-991
• Contact Point Address:
  F. Kamel, Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 111 T.W. Alexander Dr., A3-05, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
• Email:
  kamel@niehs.nih.gov
• CAS Registry Number:
  1,2-Dibromoethane (CAS RN 106-93-4) ; Aluminum phosphide (CAS RN 20859-73-8) ; Diazinon (CAS RN 333-41-5) ; Dieldrin (CAS RN 60-57-1) ; Malathion (CAS RN 121-75-5) ; Parathion (CAS RN 56-38-2) ; Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (CAS RN 93-76-5)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• Performing Organization:
  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Environmental Health Perspectives
• End Date:
  20270630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f825ba2fdf0417e9ad945d08e1880ec0417a75be0dda3d4f628339b651539c9af0973d5dcaad9b311a3b74c7b4e17781aea107a9a2413ae2329e70443ca4fc0f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/200164/cdc_200164_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 884.49 KB ]