Prostate cancer and driving occupations: could whole body vibration play a role?
OBJECTIVE
To summarize the literature on the risk of prostate cancer in whole body vibration (WBV) related occupations and estimate a combined meta-rate ratio.


METHODS
A systematic review and meta-analysis of five case-control and three cohort studies published between 1996 and 2004 was conducted. A pooled relative risk (RR) estimate was calculated and the studies were evaluated for homogeneity and publication bias.


RESULTS
The overall pooled RR estimate was 1.14 (95% CI 0.99-1.30) for the random effects model, based on 17 estimates of relative risk from the eight studies. Significant heterogeneity was found. There was no indication of publication bias.


CONCLUSIONS
The increased, though not statistically significant pooled RR for prostate cancer obtained in this meta-analysis indicates that occupational exposure to WBV cannot be ruled out as a possible risk factor for the disease. However, all included studies involved driving occupations with exposure to other risk factors for prostate cancer. Therefore, further epidemiologic studies are needed to better understand this association.
Young
Erin
E
Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, 155 College St, Toronto, ON, M5T 3M7, Canada.
Kreiger
Nancy
N
Purdham
Jim
J
Sass-Kortsak
Andrea
A
D001334:Automobile Driving; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology*; D017594:Publication Bias / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014732:Vibration / Q000009:adverse effects*