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Neurobehavioral performance and work experience in Florida farmworkers.

Farmworkers experience many work-related hazards, including exposure to neurotoxicants. We compared neurobehavioral performance of 288 farmworkers in central Florida who had done farm work for at least 1 month with 51 controls who had not. Most of the farmworkers had worked in one or more of three t...

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Autores principales: Kamel, Freya, Rowland, Andrew S, Park, Lawrence P, Anger, W Kent, Baird, Donna D, Gladen, Beth C, Moreno, Tirso, Stallone, Lillian, Sandler, Dale P
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 2003
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1241721/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14594629
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author Kamel, Freya
Rowland, Andrew S
Park, Lawrence P
Anger, W Kent
Baird, Donna D
Gladen, Beth C
Moreno, Tirso
Stallone, Lillian
Sandler, Dale P
author_facet Kamel, Freya
Rowland, Andrew S
Park, Lawrence P
Anger, W Kent
Baird, Donna D
Gladen, Beth C
Moreno, Tirso
Stallone, Lillian
Sandler, Dale P
author_sort Kamel, Freya
collection PubMed
description Farmworkers experience many work-related hazards, including exposure to neurotoxicants. We compared neurobehavioral performance of 288 farmworkers in central Florida who had done farm work for at least 1 month with 51 controls who had not. Most of the farmworkers had worked in one or more of three types of agriculture: ornamental ferns, nurseries, or citrus fruit. We collected information on farm work history in a structured interview and evaluated neurobehavioral performance using a battery of eight tests. Analyses were adjusted for established confounders including age, sex, education, and acculturation. Ever having done farm work was associated with poor performance on four tests--digit span [odds ratio (OR) = 1.90; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.02-3.53], tapping (coefficient = 4.13; 95% CI, 0.00-8.27), Santa Ana test (coefficient = 1.34; 95% CI, 0.29-2.39), and postural sway (coefficient = 4.74; 95% CI, -2.20 to 11.7)--but had little effect on four others: symbol digit latency, vibrotactile threshold, visual contrast sensitivity, and grip strength. Associations with farm work were similar in magnitude to associations with personal characteristics such as age and sex. Longer duration of farm work was associated with worse performance. Associations with fern work were more consistent than associations with nursery or citrus work. Deficits related to the duration of work experience were seen in former as well as current farmworkers, and decreased performance was related to chronic exposure even in the absence of a history of pesticide poisoning. We conclude that long-term experience of farm work is associated with measurable deficits in cognitive and psychomotor function.
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spelling pubmed-12417212005-11-08 Neurobehavioral performance and work experience in Florida farmworkers. Kamel, Freya Rowland, Andrew S Park, Lawrence P Anger, W Kent Baird, Donna D Gladen, Beth C Moreno, Tirso Stallone, Lillian Sandler, Dale P Environ Health Perspect Research Article Farmworkers experience many work-related hazards, including exposure to neurotoxicants. We compared neurobehavioral performance of 288 farmworkers in central Florida who had done farm work for at least 1 month with 51 controls who had not. Most of the farmworkers had worked in one or more of three types of agriculture: ornamental ferns, nurseries, or citrus fruit. We collected information on farm work history in a structured interview and evaluated neurobehavioral performance using a battery of eight tests. Analyses were adjusted for established confounders including age, sex, education, and acculturation. Ever having done farm work was associated with poor performance on four tests--digit span [odds ratio (OR) = 1.90; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.02-3.53], tapping (coefficient = 4.13; 95% CI, 0.00-8.27), Santa Ana test (coefficient = 1.34; 95% CI, 0.29-2.39), and postural sway (coefficient = 4.74; 95% CI, -2.20 to 11.7)--but had little effect on four others: symbol digit latency, vibrotactile threshold, visual contrast sensitivity, and grip strength. Associations with farm work were similar in magnitude to associations with personal characteristics such as age and sex. Longer duration of farm work was associated with worse performance. Associations with fern work were more consistent than associations with nursery or citrus work. Deficits related to the duration of work experience were seen in former as well as current farmworkers, and decreased performance was related to chronic exposure even in the absence of a history of pesticide poisoning. We conclude that long-term experience of farm work is associated with measurable deficits in cognitive and psychomotor function. 2003-11 /pmc/articles/PMC1241721/ /pubmed/14594629 Text en
spellingShingle Research Article
Kamel, Freya
Rowland, Andrew S
Park, Lawrence P
Anger, W Kent
Baird, Donna D
Gladen, Beth C
Moreno, Tirso
Stallone, Lillian
Sandler, Dale P
Neurobehavioral performance and work experience in Florida farmworkers.
title Neurobehavioral performance and work experience in Florida farmworkers.
title_full Neurobehavioral performance and work experience in Florida farmworkers.
title_fullStr Neurobehavioral performance and work experience in Florida farmworkers.
title_full_unstemmed Neurobehavioral performance and work experience in Florida farmworkers.
title_short Neurobehavioral performance and work experience in Florida farmworkers.
title_sort neurobehavioral performance and work experience in florida farmworkers.
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1241721/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14594629
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