Objective: To examine non-cancer morbidity in theEstonian Chernobyl cleanup workers cohort comparedwith the population sample with special attention toradiation-related diseases and mental health disorders.Design: Register-based cohort study.Setting: Estonia.Participants: An exposed cohort of 3680 men (cleanupworkers) and an unexposed cohort of 7631 men(population sample) were followed from 2004 to 2012through the Population Registry and Health InsuranceFund database.Methods: Morbidity in the exposed cohort comparedwith the unexposed controls was estimated in terms ofrate ratio (RR) with 95% CIs using Poisson regressionmodels.Results: Elevated morbidity in the exposed cohort wasfound for diseases of the nervous system, digestivesystem, musculoskeletal system, ischaemic heart diseaseand for external causes. The most salient excess risk wasobserved for thyroid diseases (RR=1.69; 95% CI 1.38 to2.07), intentional self-harm (RR=1.47; 95% CI 1.04 to2.09) and selected alcohol-related diagnoses (RR=1.25;95% CI 1.12 to 1.39). No increase in morbidity for stressreactions, depression, headaches or sleep disorders wasdetected.Conclusions: No obvious excess morbidity consistentwith biological effects of radiation was seen in theexposed cohort, with the possible exception of benignthyroid diseases. Increased alcohol-induced morbiditymay reflect alcohol abuse, and could underlie some ofthe higher morbidity rates. Mental disorders in theexposed cohort were probably under-reported.The future challenge will be to study mental andphysical comorbidities in the Chernobyl cleanup workerscohort.
展开▼
