title: Smoking behavior in trucking industry workers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In retrospective occupational studies, the degree of confounding by smoking depends on variation in smoking among job-related exposure groups. We assessed the relationship between job title and smoking behavior as part of a study on occupational exposures and lung cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire on smoking was mailed to a sample of 11,986 trucking industry workers. Company records were used to gather other relevant information.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The response rate was 40.5%. Among white males, the age-adjusted prevalence of ever smoking was highest among longhaul truck drivers (67%) and lowest among clerks (44%). Smoking rates among workers with other job titles were similar.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results will be used to adjust for the differences in smoking among job-related exposure groups when assessing the association between particulate matter exposure and lung cancer mortality. Our study also suggests that an assessment of methods to control for smoking should be considered in the design of retrospective occupational health studies.
authors.affiliation: Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Nitin B
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Jain
authors.forename: Jaime E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Hart
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Garshick
authors.forename: Francine
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Laden
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001334:Automobile Driving; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007750:Labor Unions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D009790:Occupations / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*