Citation

McDougal L, Band PR, Spinelli JJ, Threlfall WJ, Gallagher RP. Am. J. Ind. Med. 1992; 21(4): 595-599.

Affiliation

Department of Health Care and Epidemiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1992, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

1580264

Abstract

To investigate mortality patterns for domestic workers, proportional mortality ratios (PMRs) were calculated for the 1,382 female domestic workers who died in British Columbia at age 20 years or over between 1950 and 1984. This group experienced fewer deaths than expected from cerebrovascular accidents (PMR = 84) and hypertension (PMR = 39). The proportion of deaths from cirrhosis was higher than expected (PMR = 152). An excess of observed deaths was also noted for all accidents (PMR = 126), accidents due to environmental factors (PMR = 439), and homicide (PMR = 235). Mortality from pneumonia was elevated for domestic workers aged 20 to 65 (PMR = 180). Further studies using more sophisticated epidemiologic methods are necessary to evaluate whether these deaths are a result of occupational exposures or of poor socioeconomic conditions.

Language: en