A Survey of Laboratory and Statistical Issues Related to Farmworker Exposure Studies

Developing internally valid, and perhaps generalizable, farmworker exposure studies is a complex process that involves many statistical and laboratory considerations. Statistics are an integral component of each study beginning with the design stage and continuing to the final data analysis and interpretation. Similarly, data quality plays a significant role in the overall value of the study. Data quality can be derived from several experimental parameters including statistical design of the study and quality of environmental and biological analytical measurements. We discuss statistical and analytic issues that should be addressed in every farmworker study. These issues include study design and sample size determination, analytical methods and quality control and assurance, treatment of missing data or data below the method’s limits of detection, and post-hoc analyses of data from multiple studies.

[1]  Keith Rennolls.  Strategic frameworks for a sample survey design package , 1991 .

[2]  D. Rubin,et al.  Statistical Analysis with Missing Data. , 1989 .

[3]  John Keenan Taylor.  Quality Assurance of Chemical Measurements , 1981 .

[4]  J. Angerer,et al.  Internal and external quality control in the toxicological analysis of blood and urine samples in the Federal Republic of Germany , 1991, International archives of occupational and environmental health.

[5]  T. Kauppinen,et al.  Assessment of exposure in occupational epidemiology. , 1994, Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health.

[6]  A. Berger.  FUNDAMENTALS OF BIOSTATISTICS , 1969 .

[7]  D A Kalman,et al.  Improved cleanup and determination of dialkyl phosphates in the urine of children exposed to organophosphorus insecticides. , 1999, Journal of analytical toxicology.

[8]  D. Rubin.  INFERENCE AND MISSING DATA , 1975 .

[9]  S Greenland,et al.  Interpretation and choice of effect measures in epidemiologic analyses. , 1987, American journal of epidemiology.

[10]  Roderick J. A. Little,et al.  Statistical Analysis with Missing Data: Little/Statistical Analysis with Missing Data , 2002 .

[11]  R. H. Myers.  Classical and modern regression with applications , 1986 .

[12]  Samuel P. Caudill,et al.  Urinary Creatinine Concentrations in the U.S. Population: Implications for Urinary Biologic Monitoring Measurements , 2004, Environmental health perspectives.

[13]  Diane Lambert,et al.  Nondetects, Detection Limits, and the Probability of Detection , 1991 .

[14]  J S Evans,et al.  The effect of neglecting correlations when propagating uncertainty and estimating the population distribution of risk. , 1992, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[15]  J. Angerer,et al.  Report on the status of the external quality-control programs for occupational-medical and environmental-medical toxicological analyses in biological materials in Germany , 1999, International archives of occupational and environmental health.

[16]  J Rochon,et al.  Application of GEE procedures for sample size calculations in repeated measures experiments. , 1997, Statistics in medicine.

[17]  B Danielsson,et al.  High-sensitivity assay for pesticide using a peroxidase as chemiluminescent label. , 1999, Analytical chemistry.

[18]  John S. Preisser,et al.  Mobility Patterns of Migrant Farmworkers in North Carolina: Implications for Occupational Health Research and Policy. , 2002, Human organization.

[19]  Douglas M. Hawkins,et al.  Characterization using normal or log‐normal data with multiple censoring points , 2000 .

[20]  S M Rappaport,et al.  An exposure-assessments strategy accounting for within- and between-worker sources of variability. , 1995, The Annals of occupational hygiene.

[21]  Joseph Sedransk,et al.  Combining data from experiments that may be similar , 2001 .

[22]  Laurence S Freedman,et al.  Simple adjustments for randomized trials with nonrandomly missing or censored outcomes arising from informative covariates. , 2005, Biostatistics.

[23]  T R Fleming,et al.  Designs for group sequential tests. , 1984, Controlled clinical trials.

[24]  D. Kleinbaum,et al.  Applied Regression Analysis and Other Multivariate Methods , 1978 .

[25]  Kosuke Imai,et al.  Survey Sampling , 1998, Nov/Dec 2017.

[26]  P. Diggle.  Analysis of Longitudinal Data , 1995 .

[27]  Marcia Nishioka,et al.  Acephate exposure and decontamination on tobacco harvesters' hands , 2003, Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology.

[28]  Masoud Kayhanian,et al.  Statistical approaches to estimating mean water quality concentrations with detection limits. , 2002, Environmental science & technology.

[29]  Y. Benjamini,et al.  Controlling the false discovery rate in behavior genetics research , 2001, Behavioural Brain Research.

[30]  E. Symanski,et al.  A comprehensive evaluation of within- and between-worker components of occupational exposure to chemical agents. , 1993, The Annals of occupational hygiene.

[31]  P. O'Brien.  Procedures for comparing samples with multiple endpoints. , 1984, Biometrics.

[32]  J. Angerer,et al.  Determination of dialkyl phosphates in human urine using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. , 2000, Journal of analytical toxicology.

[33]  C S Pan,et al.  Misclassification of physical work exposures as a design issue for musculoskeletal intervention studies. , 2000, Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health.

[34]  S A Hendricks,et al.  Power determination for geographically clustered data using generalized estimating equations. , 1996, Statistics in medicine.

[35]  Nicole A. Lazar,et al.  Statistical Analysis With Missing Data , 2003, Technometrics.

[36]  L. Fleming,et al.  Disease clusters in occupational medicine: a protocol for their investigation in the workplace. , 1992, American journal of industrial medicine.

[37]  T R Fleming,et al.  Effects on overviews of early stopping rules for clinical trials. , 1987, Statistics in medicine.

[38]  R H Lyles,et al.  A detailed evaluation of adjustment methods for multiplicative measurement error in linear regression with applications in occupational epidemiology. , 1997, Biometrics.

[39]  Martin A. Cohen,et al.  Observations less than the analytical limit of detection , 1989 .

[40]  B M Kaufman,et al.  Immunoassay of pesticides: an update. , 1995, Journal of AOAC International.

[41]  R. Hornung,et al.  Estimation of Average Concentration in the Presence of Nondetectable Values , 1990 .

[42]  Asa Bradman,et al.  Measurement of dialkyl phosphate metabolites of organophosphorus pesticides in human urine using lyophilization with gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and isotope dilution quantification , 2004, Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology.

[43]  Kristian Linnet,et al.  Partly nonparametric approach for determining the limit of detection. , 2004, Clinical chemistry.

[44]  H. Chang,et al.  Method for the determination of dialkyl phosphates in urine by strong anion exchange disk extraction and in-vial derivatization. , 2002, Journal of analytical toxicology.

[45]  S. Dudoit,et al.  Multiple Hypothesis Testing in Microarray Experiments , 2003 .

[46]  Richard A Fenske,et al.  Size exclusion chromatographic cleanup for GC/MS determination of organophosphorus pesticide residues in household and vehicle dust. , 2002, Journal of AOAC International.

[47]  K J Rothman,et al.  No Adjustments Are Needed for Multiple Comparisons , 1990, Epidemiology.

[48]  W. Sanderson,et al.  Urinary biomonitoring for alachlor exposure in commercial pesticide applicators by immunoassay , 1995, Bulletin of environmental contamination and toxicology.

[49]  J. Vallarino,et al.  Identification of Selected Hormonally Active Agents and Animal Mammary Carcinogens in Commercial and Residential Air and Dust Samples , 2001, Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association.

[50]  R. G. Lewis,et al.  Movement and Deposition of Two Organophosphorus Pesticides within a Residence after Interior and Exterior Applications , 2001, Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association.

[51]  J. Ware,et al.  Random-effects models for longitudinal data. , 1982, Biometrics.

[52]  Joanne S Colt,et al.  Residential Herbicide Use and Risk of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma , 2005, Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention.

[53]  H Kromhout,et al.  Application of mixed-effects models for exposure assessment. , 2002, The Annals of occupational hygiene.

[54]  M. Brinkman,et al.  Distribution of 2,4-D in air and on surfaces inside residences after lawn applications: comparing exposure estimates from various media for young children. , 2001, Environmental health perspectives.

[55]  H. Kraemer,et al.  2 x 2 kappa coefficients: measures of agreement or association. , 1989, Biometrics.

[56]  Dana B Barr,et al.  Analytical methods for biological monitoring of exposure to pesticides: a review. , 2002, Journal of chromatography. B, Analytical technologies in the biomedical and life sciences.

[57]  Carol A. Koetke,et al.  Familial clusters of green tobacco sickness , 1996 .

[58]  J. Cerhan,et al.  Epidemiologic evaluation of measurement data in the presence of detection limits. , 2005, Environmental health perspectives.

[59]  L. A. Currie,et al.  LIMITS FOR QUALITATIVE DETECTION AND QUANTITATIVE DETERMINATION. APPLICATION TO RADIOCHEMISTRY. , 1968 .

[60]  A. Olshan,et al.  Multiple comparisons and related issues in the interpretation of epidemiologic data. , 1995, American journal of epidemiology.

[61]  D. Kleinbaum,et al.  Applied regression analysis and other multivariable methods, 3rd ed. , 1998 .

[62]  Ralph O. Mumma,et al.  Enzyme Immunoassay for Aldicarb , 1988 .

[63]  L L Needham,et al.  Design and demonstration of a quality assurance program for labor-intensive analytical systems. , 1983, Journal of analytical toxicology.

[64]  K Y Liang,et al.  Longitudinal data analysis for discrete and continuous outcomes. , 1986, Biometrics.

[65]  J. Chuang,et al.  Aggregate exposures of nine preschool children to persistent organic pollutants at day care and at home , 2003, Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology.

[66]  C. Stalikas,et al.  Development of a method for the simultaneous determination of phosphoric and amino acid group containing pesticides by gas chromatography with mass-selective detection optimization of the derivatization procedure using an experimental design approach. , 2000, Journal of chromatography. A.

[67]  R. O. Gilbert.  Statistical Methods for Environmental Pollution Monitoring , 1987 .

[68]  G A Colditz,et al.  Heterogeneity in meta-analysis of data from epidemiologic studies: a commentary. , 1995, American journal of epidemiology.

[69]  E M Thurman,et al.  Detection of pesticides and pesticide metabolites using the cross reactivity of enzyme immunoassays. , 2001, Journal of AOAC International.

[70]  John S Preisser,et al.  Detecting patterns of occupational illness clustering with alternating logistic regressions applied to longitudinal data. , 2003, American journal of epidemiology.

[71]  J. Angerer,et al.  Current status of the external quality assurance programmes of the German Society for Occupational and Environmental Medicine. , 1995, Toxicology letters.

[72]  D. Barr,et al.  Simplified urinary immunoassay for 2,4-D: validation and exposure assessment. , 2000, The Journal of laboratory and clinical medicine.

[73]  M. Graffar.  [Modern epidemiology]. , 1971, Bruxelles medical.

[74]  J. Spengler,et al.  Phthalates, alkylphenols, pesticides, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, and other endocrine-disrupting compounds in indoor air and dust. , 2003, Environmental science & technology.

[75]  Richard A Fenske,et al.  Children's exposure to chlorpyrifos and parathion in an agricultural community in central Washington State. , 2002, Environmental health perspectives.

[76]  Dana B Barr,et al.  Quantitation of dialkyl phosphate metabolites of organophosphate pesticides in human urine using GC-MS-MS with isotopic internal standards. , 2002, Journal of analytical toxicology.

[77]  J D Spengler,et al.  Indoor/outdoor measurements of volatile organic compounds in the Kanawha Valley of West Virginia. , 1989, JAPCA.

[78]  W T Sanderson,et al.  Biological monitoring of commercial pesticide applicators for urine metabolites of the herbicide alachlor. , 1995, American Industrial Hygiene Association journal.

[79]  R H Hill,et al.  Determination of pesticide metabolites in human urine using an isotope dilution technique and tandem mass spectrometry. , 1995, Journal of analytical toxicology.

[80]  P. B. Ryan,et al.  Longitudinal investigation of exposure to arsenic, cadmium, and lead in drinking water. , 2000, Environmental health perspectives.

[81]  M D Hughes,et al.  Analysis and design issues for studies using censored biomarker measurements with an example of viral load measurements in HIV clinical trials. , 2000, Statistics in medicine.

[82]  D. Rubin.  INFERENCE AND MISSING DATA , 1975 .