Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site islenet.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxz!vax135!floyd!cmcl2!seismo!hao!hplabs!sdcrdcf!sdcsvax!noscvax!uhpgvax!islenet!todd From: todd@islenet.UUCP (Todd Ogasawara) Newsgroups: net.followup Subject: Re: xrays from CRTs Message-ID: <467@islenet.UUCP> Date: Fri, 1-Jun-84 02:26:58 EDT Article-I.D.: islenet.467 Posted: Fri Jun 1 02:26:58 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 5-Jun-84 06:54:06 EDT Organization: Islenet Inc., Honolulu Lines: 69 A recent note of mine summarizing information from the 21 May 1984 issue of InfoWorld, which showed apparently high miscarriage rates among VDT operators at two sites, has raised some justified questions from you netlanders. Specifically, while the miscarriage/fetal death rate appears high (51% of pregnancies), we did not have any data to compare this against. Further, the sample size (n=63) was small. In order to try to get a frame of reference, I obtained permission this morning to look at and present the data you will see here. The data presented here were obtained from and presented here with the permission of: The Hawaii Family Study of Cognition (HFSC) Prin. Inves.: Dr. Ronald Johnson Univ. of Hawaii Behavioral Biology Laboratory (BBL) supported by: NSF Grant GB-34720 NICHHD Grant HD-06669 with thanks to Craig Nagoshi, U. of Hawaii, BBL, for retrieving the data. The data was obtained between the years 1973 and 1976 as part of a larger study made on the island of Oahu in the state of Hawaii. The mean age of the respondents was 42.88 years with a standard deviation of 5.6041. They were asked to report any fetal death (not just miscarriages) in their lifetime. In order to make the VDT data more comparable, the VDT data presented here include all fetal deaths also (not deformities of live births though). Caveats: There are numerous problems in trying to compare the HFSC data and the VDT data. Among the more obvious problems: (1) the data were obtained in different time frames, (2) comparison groups are from different geographical locations, (3) the groups are not matched for pertinent characteristics (occupation, lifestyle, etc.). Please keep in mind that I present the data ONLY to HELP us get a frame of reference. No real conclusions can be drawn without obtaining more recent data using a large sample and matched groups. Due to the large number of statistical, methodological, and conceptual violations that would be made by using a high level statistical analysis, only percentages are presented. We did do a quick check for differences due to Socio-Economic Status (SES) though. We did not see any trends due to SES. However, it should be noted that the respondents were mostly middle and upper-middle class. Ethnic differences, however, appear to be present. Therefore, a breakdown by ethnicity is presented. It would be interesting to see the results of a large scale study. Again, if anyone is in the position to present such data, I, for one, would be interested to see it. Ethnicity %fetal death N comments --------- ------------ --- -------- ??? 50 48 United Airlines S.F. Resv. Office ??? 53 15 Southern Bell Atlanta/data proc Across all ethnicities 28.19 1745 HFSC data Misc. ethnicities 34.02 97 subset of above caucasian 31.81 962 Japanese 23.56 433 Hawaiian-part Hawn 21.54 130 Chinese 18.70 123 Todd Ogasawara -- University of Hawaii -- Dept. of Psychology { dual,vortex,ihnp4,uhpgvax }!islenet!todd