Abstract
There is increasing emphasis in research in occupation and health using large-scale massive cohort data. There are studies based on individual population or patient registries at the national or regional level as well as combined analysis of data from registries across several countries. There are also consortia of cohort studies to combine data from multiple cohorts on specific topics. Recent efforts in Europe have sought to inventory numerous existing occupational cohort studies and to integrate their data to ultimately lead to more definitive research. Advancements in theoretical frameworks to study occupation and health, consensus definitions, and recommendations for future research have been described. Exposome research concepts have also recently been extended to the field of occupation and health. An overview of recent efforts in large cohort and massive data in occupational health is presented along with a description of associated strengths and limitations. Challenges in integrating cohort data for research in occupation and health are described.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aktas E, Bergbom B, Godderis L et al (2022) Migrant workers occupational health research: an OMEGA-NET working group position paper. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 95(4):765–777. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-021-01803-x
Andersen A, Barlow L, Engeland A et al (1999) Work-related cancer in the Nordic countries. Scand J Work Environ Health 25(Suppl 2):1–116
Andersen JS, Olivarius Nde F, Krasnik A (2011) The Danish National Health Service register. Scand J Public Health 39(7 Suppl):34–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/1403494810394718
Bakken IJ, Ariansen AMS, Knudsen GP et al (2020) The Norwegian patient registry and the Norwegian registry for primary health care: research potential of two nationwide health-care registries. Scand J Public Health 48(1):49–55. https://doi.org/10.1177/1403494819859737
Bao H, Baker CJO, Adisesh A (2020) Occupation coding of job titles: iterative development of an Automated Coding Algorithm for the Canadian National Occupation Classification (ACA-NOC). JMIR Form Res 4(8):e16422
Basagaña X, Pedersen M, Barrera-Gómez J, ESCAPE Birth Outcomes Working Group et al (2018) Analysis of multicentre epidemiological studies: contrasting fixed or random effects modelling and meta-analysis. Int J Epidemiol 47(4):1343–1354. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyy117
Belloni M, Laurent O, Guihenneuc C et al (2020) Bayesian profile regression to deal with multiple highly correlated exposures and a censored survival outcome. First application in ionizing radiation epidemiology. Front Public Health 8:557006. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.557006
Bodin T, Çağlayan Ç, Garde AH et al (2020) Precarious employment in occupational health – an OMEGA-NET working group position paper. Scand J Work Environ Health 46(3):321–329. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3860
Bondo Petersen S, Flachs EM, Prescott EIB et al (2018) Job-exposure matrices addressing lifestyle to be applied in register-based occupational health studies. Occup Environ Med 75(12):890–897. https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2018-104991
Brouwer M, Schinasi L, Beane Freeman LE et al (2016) Assessment of occupational exposure to pesticides in a pooled analysis of agricultural cohorts within the AGRICOH consortium. Occup Environ Med 73(6):359–367. https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2015-103319
Buckner-Petty S, Dale AM, Evanoff BA (2019) Efficiency of autocoding programs for converting job descriptors into standard occupational classification (SOC) codes. Am J Ind Med 62(1):59–68. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.22928
Coggon D, Ntani G, Palmer KT et al (2012) The CUPID (Cultural and Psychosocial Influences on Disability) study: methods of data collection and characteristics of study sample. PLoS One 7(7):e39820
Danish Health Data Authority (Sundhedsdatastyrelsen) (2022) National health registers. https://sundhedsdatastyrelsen.dk/da/english/health_data_and_registers/national_health_registers. Accessed 12 Aug 2022
Directorate of Health (2019) Registers and health information. https://www.landlaeknir.is/english/registersandhealthinformation. Accessed 12 Aug 2022
EIT Health Scandinavia (2022a) Health data registers. https://www.eithealth-scandinavia.eu/biobanksregisters/registers. Accessed 12 Aug 2022
EIT Health Scandinavia (2022b) Overview of access rules on Health Data Registers in Sweden. https://www.eithealth-scandinavia.eu/biobanksregisters/access/registers-sweden. Accessed 12 Aug 2022
Ervasti J, Pentti J, Nyberg ST et al (2021) Long working hours and risk of 50 health conditions and mortality outcomes: a multicohort study in four European countries. Lancet Reg Health Eur 11:100212
European Medicines Agency (2022) Patient registries. https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/human-regulatory/post-authorisation/patient-registries. Accessed 12 Aug 2022
FinnGen (2022) Health registries. https://www.finngen.fi/en/health-registries. Accessed 12 Aug 2022
Fortier I, Raina P, Van den Heuvel ER et al (2017) Maelstrom research guidelines for rigorous retrospective data harmonization. Int J Epidemiol 46(1):103–105. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyw075
Gillies M, Richardson DB, Cardis E et al (2017) Mortality from circulatory diseases and other non-cancer outcomes among nuclear workers in France, the United Kingdom and the United States (INWORKS). Radiat Res 188(3):276–290. https://doi.org/10.1667/RR14608.1
Guseva Canu I, Mesot O, Györkös C et al (2019) Burnout syndrome in Europe: towards a harmonized approach in occupational health practice and research. Ind Health 57(6):745–752. https://doi.org/10.2486/indhealth.2018-0159
Guseva Canu I, Marca SC, Dell'Oro F et al (2021) Harmonized definition of occupational burnout: a systematic review, semantic analysis, and Delphi consensus in 29 countries. Scand J Work Environ Health 47(2):95–107. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3935
Hamra GB, Richardson DB, Cardis E et al (2016) Cohort profile: the International Nuclear Workers study (INWORKS). Int J Epidemiol 45(3):693–699. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyv122
Hasselhorn HM, Leinonen T, Bültmann U et al (2022) The differentiated roles of health in the transition from work to retirement – conceptual and methodological challenges and avenues for future research. Scand J Work Environ Health 48(4):312–321. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.4017
Hoque DME, Kumari V, Hoque M et al (2017) Impact of clinical registries on quality of patient care and clinical outcomes: a systematic review. PLoS One 12(9):e0183667. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183667
International Agency for Research on Cancer (2017) IARC monographs on the evaluation of carcinogenic risks to humans; volume 112. Some organophosphate insecticides and herbicides. IARC, Lyon. Available from: https://monographs.iarc.who.int/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/mono112.pdf
International Agency for Research on Cancer (2022) AGRICOH: A consortium of agricultural cohort studies. https://agricoh.iarc.fr/about/about-agricoh. Accessed 12 Aug 2022
International Labour Organization (2010) International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO). https://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/stat/isco. Accessed 9 Aug 2022
International Labour Organization (2016) ISCO-08 Structure, index correspondence with ISCO-88. ISCO-08 Part 4: Correspondence tables. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/stat/isco/docs/correspondence08.docx. Accessed 12 Aug 2022
Jaddoe VWV, Felix JF, Andersen AN, LifeCycle Project Group et al (2020) The LifeCycle project-EU child cohort network: a federated analysis infrastructure and harmonized data of more than 250,000 children and parents. Eur J Epidemiol 35(7):709–724. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-020-00662-z
John SM, Kezic S (eds) (2017) Occupational skin diseases in Europe: In need of standards for patient care and preventive measures. Diseases. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol 31(Suppl S4):1–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/jdv.14321
Kauppinen T, Heikkilä P, Plato N et al (2009) Construction of job-exposure matrices for the Nordic occupational cancer study (NOCCA). Acta Oncol 48(5):791–800. https://doi.org/10.1080/02841860902718747
Kivimäki M, Singh-Manoux A, Virtanen M et al (2015) IPD-work consortium: pre-defined meta-analyses of individual-participant data strengthen evidence base for a link between psychosocial factors and health. Scand J Work Environ Health 41(3):312–321
Kivimäki M, Nyberg ST, Pentti J, On behalf of the IPD-Work consortium et al (2019) Individual and combined effects of job strain components on subsequent morbidity and MORTALITY. Epidemiology 30(4):e27–e29
Kogevinas M, Schlünssen V, Mehlum IS et al (2020) The OMEGA-NET international inventory of occupational cohorts. Ann Work Expo Health 64(6):565–568. https://doi.org/10.1093/annweh/wxaa039
Kristensen P, Corbett K, Mohn FA et al (2018) Information bias of social gradients in sickness absence: a comparison of self-report data in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) and data in national registries. BMC Public Health 18(1):1275. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-6208-9
Laurent O, Gomolka M, Haylock R et al (2016) Concerted uranium research in Europe (CURE): toward a collaborative project integrating dosimetry, epidemiology and radiobiology to study the effects of occupational uranium exposure. J Radiol Prot 36(2):319–345. https://doi.org/10.1088/0952-4746/36/2/319
Laurier D, Richardson DB, Cardis E et al (2017) The international nuclear workers study (Inworks): a collaborative epidemiological study to improve knowledge about health effects of protracted low-dose exposure. Radiat Prot Dosim 173(1–3):21–25. https://doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncw314
Lawlor DA, Tilling K, Davey Smith G (2016) Triangulation in aetiological epidemiology. Int J Epidemiol 45(6):1866–1886. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyw314
Leinonen T, Boets I, Pletea E et al (2022) A conceptual framework addressing the complex labour market dynamics of the work-to-retirement process. Eur J Ageing 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-022-00704-3
Leon ME, Beane Freeman LE, Douwes J, Hoppin JA, Kromhout H, Lebailly P, Nordby KC, Schenker M, Schüz J, Waring SC, Alavanja MC, Annesi-Maesano I, Baldi I, Dalvie MA, Ferro G, Fervers B, Langseth H, London L, Lynch CF, McLaughlin J, Merchant JA, Pahwa P, Sigsgaard T, Stayner L, Wesseling C, Yoo KY, Zahm SH, Straif K, Blair A (2011) AGRICOH: a consortium of agricultural cohorts. Int J Environ Res Public Health 8(5):1341–1357
Leon ME, Schinasi LH, Lebailly P et al (2019) Pesticide use and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoid malignancies in agricultural cohorts from France, Norway and the USA: a pooled analysis from the AGRICOH consortium. Int J Epidemiol 48(5):1519–1535. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyz017
Loomis D, Guha N, Kogevinas M et al (2019) Cancer mortality in an international cohort of reinforced plastics workers exposed to styrene: a reanalysis. Occup Environ Med 76:157–162
Ludvigsson JF, Andersson E, Ekbom A et al (2011) External review and validation of the Swedish national inpatient register. BMC Public Health 11:450. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-11-450
Lytras T, Kogevinas M, Kromhout H et al (2018) Occupational exposures and 20-year incidence of COPD: the European Community respiratory health survey. Thorax 73(11):1008–1015
Madsen IE, Rugulies R (2021) Understanding the impact of psychosocial working conditions on workers’ health: we have come a long way, but are we there yet? Scand J Work Environ Health 47(7):483–487
Marcon Y, Bishop T, Avraam D et al (2021) Orchestrating privacy-protected big data analyses of data from different resources with R and DataSHIELD. PLoS Comput Biol 17(3):e1008880
Mattei F, Liverani S, Guida F et al (2016) Multidimensional analysis of the effect of occupational exposure to organic solvents on lung cancer risk: the ICARE study. Occup Environ Med 73(6):368–377. https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2015-103177
National Board of Health and Welfare (2019) Registers. https://www.socialstyrelsen.se/en/statistics-and-data/registers. Accessed 12 Aug 2022
Norwegian Institute of Public Health (2016) Overview of the national health registries. https://www.fhi.no/en/more/access-to-data/about-the-national-health-registries2. Accessed 12 Aug 2022
Pedersen AG, Ellingsen CL (2015) Data quality in the causes of death registry. Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen 135(8):768–770. https://doi.org/10.4045/tidsskr.14.1065. (English, Norwegian)
Pedersen J, Schultz BB, Madsen IEH et al (2020) High physical work demands and working life expectancy in Denmark. Occup Environ Med 77(8):576–582. https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2019-106359
Peters S, Vienneau D, Sampri A et al (2022) Occupational exposure assessment tools in Europe: a comprehensive inventory overview. Ann Work Expo Health 66(5):671–686. https://doi.org/10.1093/annweh/wxab110
Phillips DE, Lozano R, Naghavi M et al (2014) A composite metric for assessing data on mortality and causes of death: the vital statistics performance index. Popul Health Metrics 12:14. https://doi.org/10.1186/1478-7954-12-14
Pronk A, Loh M, Kuijpers E, Albin M, Selander J, Godderis L, Ghosh M, Vermeulen R, Peters S, Mehlum I S, Turner MC, Schlünssen V, Goldberg M, Kogevinas M, Harding BN, Solovieva S, Garani-Papadatos T, van Tongeren M, Stierum R (2022) Applying the exposome concept to working life health. Environ Epidemiol 6(2):e185. https://doi.org/10.1097/EE9.0000000000000185
Pukkala E, Martinsen JI, Lynge E et al (2009) Occupation and cancer – follow-up of 15 million people in five Nordic countries. Acta Oncol 48(5):646–790. https://doi.org/10.1080/02841860902913546
Rage E, Richardson DB, Demers P et al (2020) PUMA – pooled uranium miners analysis: cohort profile. Occup Environ Med 77(3):194–200. https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2019-105981
Rémen T, Richardson L, Pilorget C et al (2018) Development of a coding and crosswalk tool for occupations and industries. Ann Work Expo Health 62(7):796–807
Richardson DB, Rage E, Demers PA et al (2021) Mortality among uranium miners in North America and Europe: the Pooled Uranium Miners Analysis (PUMA). Int J Epidemiol 50(2):633–643. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa195
Russ DE, Ho KY, Colt JS et al (2016) Computer-based coding of free-text job descriptions to efficiently identify occupations in epidemiological studies. Occup Environ Med 73(6):417–424
Saberi Hosnijeh F, Casabonne D, Nieters A et al (2021) Association between anthropometry and lifestyle factors and risk of B-cell lymphoma: an exposome-wide analysis. Int J Cancer 148(9):2115–2128
Schmidt M, Schmidt SA, Sandegaard JL et al (2015) The Danish National Patient Registry: a review of content, data quality, and research potential. Clin Epidemiol 7:449–490. https://doi.org/10.2147/CLEP.S91125
Schram JL, Solovieva S, Leinonen T et al (2021) The influence of occupational class and physical workload on working life expectancy among older employees. Scand J Work Environ Health 47(1):5–14. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3919
Shin HH, Cakmak S, Brion O et al (2014) Indirect adjustment for multiple missing variables applicable to environmental epidemiology. Environ Res 134:482–487. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2014.05.016
Shoman Y, Marca SC, Bianchi R et al (2021a) Psychometric properties of burnout measures: a systematic review. Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci 30:e8. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045796020001134
Shoman Y, El May E, Marca SC (2021b) Predictors of occupational burnout: a systematic review. Int J Environ Res Public Health 18(17):9188. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179188
Siew SS, Martinsen JI, Kjaerheim K et al (2017) Occupational exposure to wood dust and risk of nasal and nasopharyngeal cancer: a case-control study among men in four Nordic countries-with an emphasis on nasal adenocarcinoma. Int J Cancer 141(12):2430–2436. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.31015
Statistics Norway (1998) Norwegian Standard Classification of Occupations (STYRK-98). Official Statistics of Norway (NOS C 521). Oslo–Kongsvinger, Norway. Available from: https://www.ssb.no/a/publikasjoner/pdf/nos_c521/nos_c521.pdf
Statistics Norway (2011) Standard Classification of Occupations (STYRK-08). Official Statistics of Norway (Notater 17/2011). Oslo– Kongsvinger, Norway. Available from: https://www.ssb.no/a/publikasjoner/pdf/notat_201117/notat_201117.pdf
Steenland K, Schubauer-Berigan MK, Vermeulen R et al (2020) Risk of bias assessments and evidence syntheses for observational epidemiologic studies of environmental and occupational exposures: strengths and limitations. Environ Health Perspect 9:95002. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP6980
Stocks SJ, McNamee R, van der Molen HF et al (2015) Working group 2; Cost action IS1002—monitoring trends in occupational diseases and tracing new and emerging risks in a NETwork (MODERNET). Trends in incidence of occupational asthma, contact dermatitis, noise-induced hearing loss, carpal tunnel syndrome and upper limb musculoskeletal disorders in European countries from 2000 to 2012. Occup Environ Med 72(4):294–303. https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2014-102534
Svanes C, Johannessen A, Bertelsen RJ, On behalf of the RHINESSA International Collaboration et al (2022) Cohort profile: the multigeneration Respiratory Health in Northern Europe, Spain and Australia (RHINESSA) cohort. BMJ Open 12:e059434. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059434
t’Mannetje A, Kromhout H (2003) The use of occupation and industry classifications in general population studies. Int J Epidemiol 32(3):419–428. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyg080
Talibov M, Lehtinen-Jacks S, Martinsen JI et al (2014) Occupational exposure to solvents and acute myeloid leukemia: a population-based, case-control study in four Nordic countries. Scand J Work Environ Health 40(5):511–517. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3436
Talibov M, Sormunen J, Hansen J et al (2018) Benzene exposure at workplace and risk of colorectal cancer in four Nordic countries. Cancer Epidemiol 55:156–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canep.2018.06.011
Tamminga SJ, Kuijer PPFM, Badarin K, Alfonso JH, Amaro J, Curti S, Canu IG, Mattioli S, Mehlum IS, Rempel D, Roquelaure Y, Visser S, van der Molen HF (2021) Towards harmonisation of case definitions for eight work-related musculoskeletal disorders – an international multi-disciplinary Delphi study. BMC Musculoskelet Disord 22(1):1018. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12891-021-04871-9
Thygesen LC, Ersbøll AK (2014) When the entire population is the sample: strengths and limitations in register-based epidemiology. Eur J Epidemiol 29(8):551–558. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-013-9873-0. Epub 2014 Jan 10
Togawa K, Leon ME, Lebailly P et al (2021) Cancer incidence in agricultural workers: findings from an international consortium of agricultural cohort studies (AGRICOH). Environ Int 157:106825
Turner MC, Mehlum IS (2018) Greater coordination and harmonisation of European occupational cohorts is needed. Occup Environ Med 75(7):475–476. https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2017-104955
Turner MC, Vineis P, Seleiro E, On behalf of the EXPOsOMICS Consortium et al (2018) EXPOsOMICS: final policy workshop and stakeholder consultation. BMC Public Health 18(1):260. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5160-z
Turner MC, Albin M, Boon J et al (2022) Towards the Exposome Project for Health and Occupational Research (EPHOR) mega cohort. ISEE conference abstracts. Environ Health Perspect 2022(1)
Ubalde-Lopez M, Garani-Papadatos T, Scelo G et al (2021) Working life, health and well-being of parents: a joint effort to uncover hidden treasures in European birth cohorts. Scand J Work Environ Health 47(7):550–560. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3980
United Nations Economic Commission of Europe (2007) Register-based statistics in the Nordic countries. New York. Available from: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/609979?ln=en
van der Molen HF, Visser S, Alfonso JH et al (2021) Diagnostic criteria for musculoskeletal disorders for use in occupational healthcare or research: a scoping review of consensus- and synthesised-based case definitions. BMC Musculoskelet Disord 22(1):169. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12891-021-04031-z
Vineis P, Chadeau-Hyam M, Gmuender H et al (2017) The exposome in practice: design of the EXPOsOMICS project. Int J Hyg Environ Health 220(2 Pt A):142–151
Vrijheid M, Casas M, Bergström A et al (2012) European birth cohorts for environmental health research. Environ Health Perspect 120(1):29–37. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1103823
Vrijheid M, Slama R, Robinson O et al (2014) The human early-life exposome (HELIX): project rationale and design. Environ Health Perspect 122(6):535–544. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1307204
Vrijheid M, Basagaña X, Gonzalez JR et al (2021) Advancing tools for human early lifecourse exposome research and translation (ATHLETE): project overview. Environ Epidemiol 5(5):e166
Wey TW, Doiron D, Wissa R et al (2021) Overview of retrospective data harmonisation in the MINDMAP project: process and results. J Epidemiol Community Health 75(5):433–441. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2020-214259
WHO/ILO (2021) WHO/ILO joint estimates of the work-related burden of disease and injury, 2000–2016: global monitoring report. World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization, Geneva
Wild CP (2005) Complementing the genome with an “exposome”: the outstanding challenge of environmental exposure measurement in molecular epidemiology. Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev 14(8):1847–1850. https://doi.org/10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-05-0456
Wolfson M, Wallace SE, Masca N et al (2010) DataSHIELD: resolving a conflict in contemporary bioscience–performing a pooled analysis of individual-level data without sharing the data. Int J Epidemiol 39:1372–1382
Zhang P, Carlsten C, Chaleckis R et al (2021) Defining the scope of exposome studies and research needs from a multidisciplinary perspective. Environ Sci Technol Lett 8(10):839–852
Acknowledgments
MCT is funded by a Ramón y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2017-01892) from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and cofunded by the European Social Fund. ISGlobal acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the “Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2019-2023” Program (CEX2018-000806-S), and support from the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA Program. COST Action CA16216 (OMEGA-NET) was supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). EPHOR is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 874703.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Mehlum, I.S., Turner, M.C. (2023). Challenges of Large Cohort and Massive Data in Occupational Health. In: Wahrendorf, M., Chandola, T., Descatha, A. (eds) Handbook of Life Course Occupational Health. Handbook Series in Occupational Health Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30492-7_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30492-7_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-30491-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-30492-7
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences