Cancer risks in the employees working at the Air Transportation Industries in the Republic of Korea

Abstract

Objectives: In this study the risk of cancer in the air transportation industries by their occupations considering known personal and lifestyle risk factors affecting the cancer risk using the air transportation industry cohort data and the National Health Insurance claims data. Methods: Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) and Hazard ratios (HRs) for 24 cancers were calculated using the National Cancer Center's National Cancer Registration Statistics (1988-2017), Statistics Korea Cause of Death (1995-2017), and National Health Insurance Medical Examinations and Medical Examinations (2002-2017). The incidence rates were compared with the total workers enrolled in employment insurance during the same period. In the case of the air transport industries, the time when employment insurance started to be applied for the air transport business group after 1995 was considered as the start point of the tracking, and the final tracking ended on December 31, 2017. Results: The number of included workers was 72,045 in the air transportation industry group, and 8,094,552 in the control group. After adjusting lifestyles and economic factors, the HR for skin cancer in the female workers in the air transport industry was high as 1.94 (95% CI 1.09-3.44). In spite that the alcohol drinking was adjusted, the highest proportionate risks were still found in both male and female workers for oral cancer and nasopharyngeal cancer in the air transportation group. The HR of oral cancer and nasopharyngeal cancer was 1.47 (95% CI 1.10-1.96) in men and 2.10 (95% CI 1.12-3.94) in women, which was statistically significantly higher than that of the control group. Conclusions: Further studies are required to assess the assessing whether the increased risks of cancers were due to work or other factors in a group of air transport industry workers. Keywords: Hazard ratio, Air transportation industries, Occupational cancer