Table 1.
Total and 5 year interval relative frequencies of exposure assessment methods (EAM), and related study types, study locations, health outcomes and specificity of assessment in studies of occupational pesticide exposures and various health outcomes
| Publication year | 1993–2017 | 1993–1997 | 1998–2002 | 2003–2007 | 2008–2012 | 2013–2017 | Missing | ||||||
| N | % | N | % | N | % | N | % | N | % | N | % | % | |
| Number of articles | 1271 | 100 | 152 | 12 | 224 | 17.6 | 274 | 21.6 | 289 | 22.7 | 332 | 26.1 | |
| Articles applying >1 EAM | 203 | 16 | 29 | 19.1 | 19 | 8.5 | 51 | 18.6 | 54 | 18.7 | 50 | 15.1 | |
| Articles not reporting EAM | 11 | 1.1 | 1 | 0.7 | – | – | 1 | 0.4 | 5 | 1.7 | 4 | 1.2 | |
| Number of EAM occurrences in studies | n=1483 | n=183 | n=245 | n=326 | n=345 | n=384 | |||||||
| EAM: | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Indirect EAM | 1219 | 82.2 | 147 | 80.3 | 187 | 76.3 | 283 | 86.8 | 284 | 82.3 | 318 | 82.8 | |
| Direct EAM | 253 | 17.1 | 35 | 19.1 | 58 | 23.7 | 42 | 12.9 | 56 | 16.2 | 62 | 16.1 | |
| EAM not reported | 11 | 0.7 | 1 | 0.5 | . | – | 1 | 0.3 | 5 | 1.4 | 4 | 1 | |
| Indirect EAM: | |||||||||||||
| Job title | 182 | 12.3 | 26 | 14.2 | 43 | 17.6 | 35 | 10.7 | 41 | 11.9 | 37 | 9.6 | |
| Expert case-by-case | 84 | 5.7 | 18 | 9.8 | 9 | 3.7 | 27 | 8.3 | 20 | 5.8 | 10 | 2.6 | |
| Self-reported exposure: self-administered or interview administered questionnaire |
590 | 39.9 | 49 | 26.8 | 89 | 36.3 | 136 | 41.7 | 144 | 41.7 | 172 | 44.8 | |
| Self-reported job history: self-administered or interview administered questionnaire |
103 | 6.9 | 16 | 8.7 | 11 | 4.5 | 20 | 6.1 | 26 | 7.5 | 30 | 7.8 | |
| Registers | 85 | 5.7 | 20 | 10.9 | 15 | 6.1 | 24 | 7.4 | 11 | 3.2 | 15 | 3.9 | |
| JEM | 69 | 4.7 | 4 | 2.2 | 11 | 4.5 | 9 | 2.8 | 14 | 4.1 | 31 | 8.1 | |
| CEM | 3 | 0.2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 3 | 0.8 | |
| TEM | 1 | 0.1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | 0.3 | |
| Algorithm/model | 80 | 5.4 | 9 | 4.9 | 3 | 1.2 | 26 | 8 | 26 | 7.6 | 16 | 4.2 | |
| Index | 6 | 0.4 | 2 | 1.1 | 2 | 0.8 | – | – | 2 | 0.6 | – | – | |
| Score | 1 | 0.1 | – | – | 1 | 0.4 | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Metric | 1 | 0.1 | 1 | 0.5 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Environmental monitoring | 12 | 0.8 | 2 | 1.1 | 3 | 1.2 | 6 | 1.8 | – | – | 1 | 0.3 | |
| GIS | 2 | 0.1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2 | 0.5 | |
| Direct EAM: | |||||||||||||
| Biomonitoring: | |||||||||||||
| Blood | 175 | 11.8 | 24 | 13.1 | 43 | 17.6 | 32 | 9.8 | 39 | 11.3 | 37 | 9.6 | |
| Urine | 69 | 4.7 | 9 | 4.9 | 13 | 5.3 | 8 | 2.5 | 16 | 4.6 | 23 | 6 | |
| Dermal | 2 | 0.1 | 1 | 0.5 | 1 | 0.4 | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Hair | 1 | 0.1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | 0.3 | – | – | |
| Adipose tissue | 3 | 0.2 | – | – | 1 | 0.4 | 1 | 0.3 | – | – | 1 | 0.3 | |
| Personal air sampling | 3 | 0.2 | 1 | 0.5 | – | – | 1 | 0.3 | 1 | 0.3 | |||
| Specificity of EAM: | 0.4 | ||||||||||||
| Job title | 236 | 15.9 | 39 | 21.3 | 41 | 16.7 | 45 | 13.8 | 53 | 15.4 | 58 | 15.1 | |
| Pesticides in general | 476 | 32.1 | 59 | 32.2 | 69 | 28.2 | 99 | 30.4 | 109 | 31.6 | 140 | 36.5 | |
| Type of pesticide | 112 | 7.6 | 8 | 4.4 | 21 | 8.6 | 25 | 7.7 | 21 | 6.1 | 37 | 9.6 | |
| Chemical class | 273 | 18.4 | 37 | 20.2 | 60 | 24.5 | 54 | 16.6 | 58 | 16.8 | 64 | 16.7 | |
| Specific active ingredient | 380 | 25.6 | 40 | 21.9 | 54 | 22 | 102 | 31.3 | 100 | 29 | 84 | 21.9 | |
| Not reported | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | 0.3 | 4 | 1.2 | 1 | 0.1 | |
| Study location of articles:* | 0 | ||||||||||||
| LIC | 17 | 1.1 | – | – | 3 | 1.2 | – | – | 4 | 1.2 | 10 | 2.6 | |
| LMIC | 145 | 9.8 | 11 | 6 | 7 | 2.9 | 24 | 7.4 | 47 | 13.6 | 56 | 14.6 | |
| UMIC | 222 | 15 | 14 | 7.7 | 31 | 12.7 | 37 | 11.3 | 55 | 15.9 | 85 | 22.1 | |
| HIC | 1007 | 67.9 | 147 | 80.3 | 184 | 75.1 | 244 | 74.8 | 222 | 64.3 | 2018 | 54.7 | |
| SHIC | 16 | 1.1 | – | – | 1 | 0.4 | 6 | 1.8 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 0.5 | |
| AHIC | 36 | 2.4 | 4 | 2.2 | 4 | 1.6 | 7 | 2.1 | 4 | 1.2 | 17 | 4.4 | |
| Not reported | 40 | 2.7 | 7 | 3.8 | 15 | 6.1 | 8 | 2.5 | 6 | 1.7 | 4 | 1 | |
| Study design of articles: | 3 | ||||||||||||
| Cross-sectional | 466 | 31.4 | 47 | 25.7 | 86 | 35.1 | 96 | 29.4 | 108 | 31.3 | 129 | 33.6 | |
| Cohort (prospective) | 505 | 34.1 | 70 | 38.3 | 78 | 31.8 | 116 | 35.6 | 114 | 33 | 127 | 33.1 | |
| Cohort (retrospective) | 20 | 1.3 | 5 | 2.7 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0.9 | 4 | 1.2 | 3 | 0.8 | |
| Case-control | 447 | 30.1 | 52 | 28.4 | 71 | 29 | 104 | 31.9 | 106 | 30.7 | 114 | 29.7 | |
| Health outcome in articles: | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Self-reported outcomes | 205 | 13.8 | 25 | 13.7 | 36 | 14.7 | 47 | 14.4 | 46 | 13.3 | 51 | 13.3 | |
| Cancer (doctor-diagnosed) | 394 | 26.6 | 49 | 26.8 | 55 | 22.4 | 105 | 32.2 | 95 | 27.5 | 90 | 23.4 | |
| Genetic biomarkers (test results)† | 184 | 12.4 | 12 | 6.6 | 35 | 14.3 | 35 | 10.7 | 48 | 13.9 | 54 | 14.1 | |
| Neurological (doctor-diagnosed) | 94 | 6.3 | 8 | 4.4 | 10 | 4.1 | 21 | 6.4 | 28 | 8.1 | 27 | 7 | |
| Neurological (test results) | 77 | 5.2 | 13 | 7.1 | 17 | 6.9 | 15 | 4.6 | 12 | 3.5 | 20 | 5.2 | |
| Reproductive+offspring (doctor-diagnosed) | 97 | 6.5 | 14 | 7.7 | 13 | 5.3 | 17 | 5.2 | 17 | 4.9 | 36 | 9.4 | |
| Reproductive+offspring (test results) | 76 | 5.1 | 4 | 2.2 | 23 | 9.4 | 16 | 4.9 | 18 | 5.2 | 15 | 3.9 | |
| Respiratory (doctor-diagnosed) | 6 | 0.4 | – | – | – | – | 2 | 0.6 | 2 | 0.6 | 2 | 0.5 | |
| Respiratory (test results) | 23 | 1.6 | 2 | 1.1 | 3 | 1.2 | 5 | 1.5 | 3 | 0.9 | 10 | 2.6 | |
| Mortality (all-cause) (doctor-diagnosed) | 78 | 5.3 | 31 | 16.9 | 11 | 4.5 | 18 | 5.5 | 13 | 3.8 | 5 | 1.3 | |
| Other‡ | 249 | 16.8 | 25 | 13.7 | 42 | 17.1 | 45 | 13.8 | 63 | 18.3 | 74 | 19.3 | |
*Classification according to the World Bank Atlas Method, 2019.31 LIC=low-income countries. LMIC=lower middle-income countries. UMIC=upper middle-income countries. HIC=high-income countries. AHIC=multiple study locations all high-income countries. SHIC=multiple study locations some high-income countries.
†Refers to results from medical/diagnostic tests for a disease.
‡Miscellaneous outcomes with very low frequencies, for example, musculoskeletal disorders, suicide and diseases of the circulatory system.
AHIC, multiple study locations all high-income countries; CEM, crop exposure matrices; GIS, geographical information systems; HIC, high-income countries; JEM, job exposure matrices; LIC, low-income countries; LMIC, lower middle-income countries; SHIC, multiple study locations some high-income countries; TEM, task exposure matrices; UMIC, upper middle-income countries.