Risk of obstructive pulmonary diseases and occupational exposure to pesticides: a systematic review and meta-analysis

This meta-analysis study was performed to examine the relationship between occupational exposure to pesticides and the risk of obstructive pulmonary diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and chronic bronchitis.

This is a systematic review and meta-analysis study.

PubMed and Scopus databases were searched for English-language publications. Eight cohort studies and one case-control study were included in the pooled analysis.

These studies had a total of 101,353 participants from eleven different countries and were published between 2006 and 2018. The heterogeneity among the studies was high (P < 0.001, I² = 68.7%). In a random-effects model meta-analysis, a pooled odds ratio (OR) analysis showed that there was a direct relationship between occupational exposure to the pesticides and obstructive pulmonary diseases (OR = 1.33, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.21-1.47). A positive significant relationship was also observed between exposure to the pesticides and risk of chronic bronchitis (OR = 1.27, 95% CI: 1.23-1.31). Also, there was a significant relationship between occupational exposure to the pesticides and an increased risk of COPD (OR = 1.44, 95% CI: 1.14-1.81). No evidence of publication bias was found among the studies according to the results of the Egger's test (P of bias = 0.157).

Findings of this study show that occupational exposure to pesticides can be associated with an increased risk of obstructive lung diseases including chronic bronchitis and COPD.