Methodological and Practical Challenges in Synthesizing Occupational Cancer Studies

Details

• Personal Author:
  Ahn S ; Boga DJ ; Caban-Martinez, Alberto J. ; Chavez JV ; Hernandez D ; Kobetz E ; Lee DJ ; McClure LA ; Pinheiro PS ; Quintela Fernandez JA ; Ukani H
• Description:
  Studies examining occupational exposures and cancer risk frequently report mixed findings; it is thus imperative for researchers to synthesize study results and identify any potential sources that explain such variabilities in study findings. However, when synthesizing study results using meta-analytic techniques, researchers often encounter a number of practical and methodological challenges. These challenges include (1) an incomparability of effect size measures due to large variations in research methodology; (2) a violation of the independence assumption for meta-analysis; (3) a violation of the normality assumption of effect size measures; and (4) a variation in cancer definitions across studies and changes in coding standards over time. In this paper, we first demonstrate these challenges by providing examples from a real dataset collected for a large meta-analysis project that synthesizes cancer mortality and incidence rates among firefighters. We summarize how each of these challenges has been handled in our meta-analysis. We conclude this paper by providing practical guidelines for handling challenges when synthesizing study findings from occupational cancer literature. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Epidemiology Neoplasms Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Meta-analysis Cancer Rates Cancer Studies ICD Code Incidence Mortality Mortality Studies Occupational Exposure Statistical Quality Control
• ISSN:
  1660-4601
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Florida ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  21
• Issue:
  6
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20069839
• Citation:
  Int J Environ Res Public Health 2024 Jun; 21(6):742
• Contact Point Address:
  Soyeon Ahn, Department of Educational and Psychological Studies, School of Education and Human Development, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA
• Email:
  s.ahn@miami.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2024
• Performing Organization:
  University of Miami School of Medicine
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20130901
• Source Full Name:
  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• End Date:
  20161031
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:745fe2003ba1a74387d9cd2e43e1697471e3cde0e089328110f3cd06f193c17d9fd04301bc2ceaf01be1ffe886c01cafad3afca18534074bb913eaab5b6bb356
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/208185/cdc_208185_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.35 MB ]