Narrative review of occupational exposures and noncommunicable diseases.

OBJECTIVE: Within the scope of the Exposome Project for Health and Occupational Research on applying the exposome concept to working life health, we aimed to provide a broad overview of the status of knowledge on occupational exposures and associated health effects across multiple noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) to help inform research priorities. METHODS: We conducted a narrative review of occupational risk factors that can be considered to have "consistent evidence for an association," or where there is "limited/inadequate evidence for an association" for 6 NCD groups: nonmalignant respiratory diseases; neurodegenerative diseases; cardiovascular/metabolic diseases; mental disorders; musculoskeletal diseases; and cancer. The assessment was done in expert sessions, primarily based on systematic reviews, supplemented with narrative reviews, reports, and original studies. Subsequently, knowledge gaps were identified, e.g. based on missing information on exposure-response relationships, gender differences, critical time-windows, interactions, and inadequate study quality. RESULTS: We identified over 200 occupational exposures with consistent or limited/inadequate evidence for associations with one or more of 60+ NCDs. Various exposures were identified as possible risk factors for multiple outcomes. Examples are diesel engine exhaust and cadmium, with consistent evidence for lung cancer, but limited/inadequate evidence for other cancer sites, respiratory, neurodegenerative, and cardiovascular diseases. Other examples are physically heavy work, shift work, and decision latitude/job control. For associations with limited/inadequate evidence, new studies are needed to confirm the association. For risk factors with consistent evidence, improvements in study design, exposure assessment, and case definition could lead to a better understanding of the association and help inform health-based threshold levels. CONCLUSIONS: By providing an overview of knowledge gaps in the associations between occupational exposures and their health effects, our narrative review will help setting priorities in occupational health research. Future epidemiological studies should prioritize to include large sample sizes, assess exposures prior to disease onset, and quantify exposures. Potential sources of biases and confounding need to be identified and accounted for in both original studies and systematic reviews.

Replacement of potatoes with other vegetables and risk of myocardial infarction in the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health cohort.

Intake of vegetables is recommended for the prevention of myocardial infarction (MI). However, vegetables make up a heterogeneous group, and subgroups of vegetables may be differentially associated with MI. The aim of this study was to examine replacement of potatoes with other vegetables or subgroups of other vegetables and the risk of MI. Substitutions between subgroups of other vegetables and risk of MI were also investigated. We followed 29 142 women and 26 029 men aged 50-64 years in the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health cohort. Diet was assessed at baseline by using a detailed validated FFQ. Hazard ratios (HR) with 95 % CI for the incidence of MI were calculated using Cox proportional hazards regression. During 13·6 years of follow-up, 656 female and 1694 male cases were identified. Among women, the adjusted HR for MI was 1·02 (95 % CI 0·93, 1·13) per 500 g/week replacement of potatoes with other vegetables. For vegetable subgroups, the HR was 0·93 (95 % CI 0·77, 1·13) for replacement of potatoes with fruiting vegetables and 0·91 (95 % CI 0·77, 1·07) for replacement of potatoes with other root vegetables. A higher intake of cabbage replacing other vegetable subgroups was associated with a statistically non-significant higher risk of MI. A similar pattern of associations was found when intake was expressed in kcal/week. Among men, the pattern of associations was overall found to be similar to that for women. This study supports food-based dietary guidelines recommending to consume a variety of vegetables from all subgroups.

Plant foods, dietary fibre and risk of ischaemic heart disease in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort.

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological evidence indicates that diets rich in plant foods are associated with a lower risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD), but there is sparse information on fruit and vegetable subtypes and sources of dietary fibre. This study examined the associations of major plant foods, their subtypes and dietary fibre with risk of IHD in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). METHODS: We conducted a prospective analysis of 490 311 men and women without a history of myocardial infarction or stroke at recruitment (12.6 years of follow-up, n cases = 8504), in 10 European countries. Dietary intake was assessed using validated questionnaires, calibrated with 24-h recalls. Multivariable Cox regressions were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) of IHD. RESULTS: There was a lower risk of IHD with a higher intake of fruit and vegetables combined [HR per 200 g/day higher intake 0.94, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.90-0.99, P-trend = 0.009], and with total fruits (per 100 g/day 0.97, 0.95-1.00, P-trend = 0.021). There was no evidence for a reduced risk for fruit subtypes, except for bananas. Risk was lower with higher intakes of nuts and seeds (per 10 g/day 0.90, 0.82-0.98, P-trend = 0.020), total fibre (per 10 g/day 0.91, 0.85-0.98, P-trend = 0.015), fruit and vegetable fibre (per 4 g/day 0.95, 0.91-0.99, P-trend = 0.022) and fruit fibre (per 2 g/day 0.97, 0.95-1.00, P-trend = 0.045). No associations were observed between vegetables, vegetables subtypes, legumes, cereals and IHD risk. CONCLUSIONS: In this large prospective study, we found some small inverse associations between plant foods and IHD risk, with fruit and vegetables combined being the most strongly inversely associated with risk. Whether these small associations are causal remains unclear.

Substitution of red meat with poultry or fish and risk of type 2 diabetes: a Danish cohort study.

PURPOSE: We examined associations between substitution of red meat (total, processed and unprocessed, low fat and high fat) with poultry or fish and substitution of processed red meat with unprocessed red meat and the risk of type 2 diabetes. METHODS: A cohort of 53,163 participants from the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health study were followed for incident type 2 diabetes (6879 cases; median follow-up time 15.4 years). Diet was assessed by a validated 192-item food frequency questionnaire at baseline. Adjusted Cox proportional hazard models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for type 2 diabetes associated with specified food substitutions of 150 g/week. RESULTS: Replacing total red meat with fish was associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes [HR 0.96 (95% CI 0.94, 0.99)] as was replacement of processed red meat with poultry or fish [HR poultry 0.96 (95% CI 0.93, 0.99)]; HR fish 0.94 [(95% CI 0.91, 0.97)]. Replacing low fat red meat or high fat red meat with fish was associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes whereas similar substitutions, with poultry, were not. Replacing processed red meat with unprocessed red meat was also associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes [HR 0.96 (95% CI 0.93, 0.99)]. CONCLUSIONS: Replacing processed red meat with poultry, replacing total or processed red meat with fish, and replacing processed red meat with unprocessed red meat were all associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.