The impact of a broad range of occupational exposures on subclinical interstitial lung disease (ILD) has not been studied.
To determine whether occupational exposures to vapors, gas, dust and fumes (VGDF) are associated with high attenuation areas (HAA) and interstitial lung abnormalities (ILA), which are quantitative and qualitative CT-based measurements of subclinical ILD, respectively.
We performed analyses of participants enrolled in MESA, a population-based cohort age 45-84 at recruitment. HAA was measured at baseline and on serial cardiac CT scans in 5686 participants. ILA was ascertained in a subset of 2312 participants who underwent full lung CT scanning at 10-year follow-up. Occupational exposures were assessed by self-reported VGDF exposure and by job exposure matrix (JEM). Linear mixed models and logistic regression were used to determine whether occupational exposures were associated with log-transformed HAA and ILA. Models were adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, employment status, tobacco use, and scanner technology.
Each JEM score increment in VGDF exposure was associated with 3.31% greater HAA (95%CI 2.11% to 4.53%). Self-reported fume exposure was associated with 2.38% greater HAA (95%CI 0.44% to 4.36%). Self-reported vapors/gas exposure was associated with an increased odds of ILA among those currently employed (1.76-fold, 95%CI 1.09 to 2.84) and those less than 65 years old (1.97-fold, 95%CI 1.16 to 3.35). There was no consistent evidence that occupational exposures were associated with progression of HAA over the follow-up period.
JEM-assigned and self-reported exposures to VGDF were associated with measurements of subclinical ILD in community-dwelling adults.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 69. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 01 July 2025.
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