Poisson regression analysis of mortality among male workers at a thorium-processing plant

摘要

Analyses of mortality among a cohort of 3119 male workers employed between 1915 and 1973 at a thorium-processing plant were updated to the end of 1982. Of the whole group, 761 men were deceased and 2161 men were still alive, while 197 men were lost to follow-up. A total of 250 deaths was added to the 511 deaths observed in the previous study. The standardized mortality ratio (SMR) for all causes of death was 1.12 with 95% confidence interval (CI) of 1.05-1.21. The SMRs were also significantly increased for all malignant neoplasms (SMR = 1.23, 95% CI = 1.04-1.43) and lung cancer (SMR = 1.36, 95% CI = 1.02-1.78). Poisson regression analysis was employed to evaluate the joint effects of job classification, duration of employment, time since first employment, age and year at first employment on mortality of all malignant neoplasms and lung cancer. A comparison of internal and external analyses with the Poisson regression model was also conducted and showed no obvious difference in fitting the data on lung cancer mortality of the thorium workers. The results of the multivariate analysis showed that there was no significant effect of all the study factors on mortality due to all malignant neoplasms and lung cancer. Therefore, further study is needed for the former thorium workers.