Associations of pesticide use with allergic and non-allergic wheeze among women in the Agricultural Health Study (2005-2010)

Abstract

Background: Pesticide use may contribute to respiratory symptoms; allergy may modify this association. Most prior evidence on pesticides and respiratory symptoms comes from studies of men.Objective: To study pesticide use and respiratory symptoms in women, we evaluated the association of pesticide use with allergic and non-allergic wheeze among women in the Agricultural Health Study (AHS), a prospective study of farmers in their spouses in North Carolina and Iowa.Methods: Using self-reported data for 20,164 women who completed the 2005-2010 AHS interview, we evaluated cross-sectional associations between allergic and non-allergic wheeze with current use of 19 pesticides. We defined allergic wheeze as reporting wheeze and doctor-diagnosed hay fever (7%) and non-allergic wheeze as reporting wheeze but not hay fever (8%) in the past 12 months. Using women without wheeze as the referent, we used polytomous logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) adjusted for age, body mass index, state, current asthma, and smoking.Results: Current use of any pesticide was reported by 1,425 women (7%) and was associated with both allergic (OR:1.36, 95% CI:1.10-1.67) and non-allergic (OR:1.25, 95% CI=1.04-1.51) wheeze. Glyphosate was the most frequently used pesticide (4%). Glyphosate, carbaryl, and malathion were associated with both allergic and non-allergic wheeze. In addition, diazinon and fly spray were associated with allergic wheeze, whereas dicamba and triclopyr were associated with non-allergic wheeze. Because glyphosate was the most commonly used pesticide, we evaluated whether glyphosate confounded the other pesticide associations. After adjusting for glyphosate use, only diazinon and fly spray remained associated with allergic wheeze and carbaryl with non-allergic wheeze.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that specific pesticide use may contribute to allergic and non-allergic wheeze among farm women.