This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Higher mortality risk observed in women with sarcoidosis exposure at work

Occupational exposure to sarcoidosis appears to carry a higher risk for women than men, with the highest risks observed among black women in teaching, banking, administrative and metalwork, according to recent research.

“The effects of occupational exposures on sarcoidosis mortality were more significant in women than men and in blacks than whites, with the most prominent findings in black women,” Hongbo Liu, MD, of the division of environmental and occupational health sciences at National Jewish Health in Denver, and colleagues wrote. “While these findings are associative, they may suggest potential interactions between occupational exposures and gender and race that could spur the greater risk of death noted in women and blacks. It is possible that differences in disease risk based on sex and race could be in part related to differences in exposure.”

Liu and colleagues used data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) to identify the death certificates of patients who died from sarcoidosis between 1988 and 1999 across 25 different states. Patients were included in the study if they had ICD-9 and ICD-10 code relating to sarcoidosis, including subcodes of sarcoidosis, and if the condition was an underlying cause of mortality or one of multiple contributing factors to mortality. Additionally, patient occupation was recorded if it was listed on the death certificate.

The researchers found 3,393 patients with sarcoidosis-related deaths of 7,118,535 patients with occupational coding. Overall, the mortality rate for workers with occupational exposure was higher than those workers without exposure (mortality OR = 1.52; 95% CI, 1.35-1.71). Women were more likely to have sarcoidosis-related deaths than men (mortality OR = 2.25; 95% CI, 2.1-2.42) and women with any exposure had an increased mortality rate compared with women without exposure (mortality OR = 1.65; 95% CI, 1.45-1.89).

Women with occupational exposure were more likely to have worked in jobs related to administrative, health, teaching, organic and sales tasks, whereas men were more likely to have worked in jobs involving organic, metal, silica, animals and agriculture. There was also an elevated risk of sarcoidosis-related mortality for black patients, with black women in jobs involving teaching, metal, banking and administrative tasks carrying the highest risks for mortality. – by Jeff Craven

Disclosure: Liu reports no relevant financial disclosures. One researcher reports grants from Prothena Inc. as well as grants from and an advisory board role with Mallinckrodt. Another researcher reports grants from NIH/NHLBI and payment for travel from Novartis. Please see the full study for a complete list of all other researchers’ relevant financial disclosures.