Table 2.

Associations between pesticide use activities and stroke mortality among 51,603 male private and commercial pesticide applicators, Agricultural Health Study, 1993–2008.^a

Pesticide Use	Casesb		Non-casesc		Person Time	Hazard Ratiod	95% Confidence Interval
	(N = 308)	%	(N = 51,295)	%
Lifetime exposure, days
0–50	49	18	8788	19	116646	1
51–100	46	17	3648	8	47366	1.56	1.04	2.33
101–250	82	30	16957	36	223916	1.13	0.79	1.62
>250	98	36	18078	38	237819	1.09	0.78	1.55
Years mixed/applied pesticides
≤ 5 years	27	10	8120	17	109332	1
6–10 years	40	14	7598	15	101490	1.41	0.87	2.30
11–20 years	52	19	15935	32	212009	0.93	0.58	1.48
21–30 years	69	25	11427	23	148579	1.14	0.72	1.78
>30 years	93	33	6055	12	76339	1.31	0.84	2.02
Days/year mixed
<5 days	80	28	8777	18	115011	1
5–9 days	70	25	10881	22	142286	0.97	0.71	1.35
10–19 days	74	26	14041	29	184932	0.98	0.71	1.34
≥ 20 days	58	21	15078	31	200930	0.90	0.64	1.26
Use of chemical- resistant gloves
No	156	51	14839	29	193863	1
Yes	152	49	36456	71	481971	0.83	0.65	1.05
	Casesb		Non-casesc
	(N = 191)		(N = 23,009)
High-pesticide-exposure event e,g
No	140	91	18941	85	251256	1
Yes	14	9	3448	15	45923	0.91	0.52	1.58
Diagnosed pesticide-poisoning event f,g
No	151	96	22205	98	294572	1
Yes	6	4	455	2	6038	1.73	0.77	3.92

^aData not available for all participants due to missing values in some categories.

^bCases are defined as deaths with an underlying or contributing cause attributed to stroke on state death certificates by using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (430–438), or Tenth Revision (I60-I69) codes.

^cNon-cases are participants who did not experience a stroke-related death during study follow-up.

^dResults were obtained from Cox proportional hazards regression adjusted for state, smoking status, and alcohol consumption.

^eParticipants were asked the question, “Have you ever had an incident or experience while using any type of PESTICIDE which caused you unusually high personal exposure?”

^fParticipants were asked if a doctor had ever diagnosed them with pesticide poisoning.

^gQuestions asked on the take-home questionnaire were answered by 23,170 participants (161 stroke deaths).