Previous history of respiratory disease was self-reported as access to patient medical records was not available for validation, and similarly, validation of occupation was not possible due to a lack of occupational records.
Relevant archival data (i.e. school and occupational records) were reviewed in every case.
The data should be stored and easily accessible, in computerized occupational records [ 4, 24].
Cumulative exposure for each individual was obtained by adding up annual workplace specific exposures according to the start and end date of employment obtained from occupational records.
This is consistent with other studies based mostly on occupational cohorts that reported poor to fair agreement between death certificate-derived job titles to those obtained from occupational records and other proxy reports [ 15- 20].
38 They further examined the lifetime occupational records for a subgroup of cases and controls, and found a significant association of IPF with the duration of working with metal (OR per 10 years 1.71, 95% CI 1.09 2.68).
However, this association has been questioned (Bunn et al. 2004; Hesterberg et al. 2006; Valberg and Watson 2000) because of uncertainties regarding the link between the occupational records used to assess work history, specific job duties, and exposure.
Of 25 patients with IAC and/or autoimmune pancreatitis, 88% had a history of blue-collar work of at least 1 year, but often of a whole career (Table 1: e.g., building contractors, plumbers), much more than could be expected on the basis of historical Dutch occupational records.
Occupational class was based on occupations recorded in the employer's personnel register.
It is possible that 13 additional NSIs occurred during the securement of these catheter lines; but, unless our occupational health record specifically documented that the NSI occurred while the worker was securing the line to the patient's skin, those data were not included.
