title: Organochlorines in Swedish women: determinants of serum concentrations.
abstract: We studied associations between lifestyle/medical factors and lipid-adjusted serum concentrations of seven polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners and five chlorinated pesticides/metabolites among 205 Swedish women (54-75 years old). Serum concentrations were significantly associated with age, body mass index, body weight change, diabetes mellitus, consumption of fatty fish, and place of residence. The findings suggest that lifestyle/medical factors may confound results in epidemiologic studies when they are related to both serum concentrations and disease. Moreover, disease itself may influence serum concentrations of some organochlorines, as indicated by the negative associations between recent weight change and serum concentrations of some PCB congeners, p,p -dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE), and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and the positive association between diabetes mellitus and HCB concentrations. Age was the only determinant that showed a consistent association with all compounds studied (positive); otherwise associations with single determinants varied among compounds even within the PCB group. This shows that the studied organochlorines should not be treated as a homogeneous group of compounds in epidemiologic studies.
authors.affiliation: Swedish National Food Administration, Uppsala, Sweden. glwi@slv.se
authors.forename: Anders Wicklund
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Glynn
authors.forename: Fredrik
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Granath
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aune
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Atuma
authors.forename: Per Ola
authors.initials: PO
authors.lastname: Darnerud
authors.forename: Rickard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bjerselius
authors.forename: Harri
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vainio
authors.forename: Elisabete
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Weiderpass
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus; D004032:Diet; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000097:blood*; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D005260:Female; D005399:Fishes; D006801:Humans; D007306:Insecticides / Q000097:blood*; D008019:Life Style; D008875:Middle Aged; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls / Q000097:blood*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D007306:Insecticides; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls