Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: INTRODUCTION: Job-exposure matrices (JEMs) are being used to assign (quantitative levels of) exposure to individuals based on their job history. In human observational studies, a group-based approach in which every individual with a similar job will be assigned similar exposure will not bias exposure-response associations but will result in loss of precision. However, since JEMs do not consider between-worker differences in average exposure, some individual workers' cumulative exposures will be underestimated. This may affect their chances of compensation when a minimal (cumulative) exposure threshold is applied. METHODS: We analysed more than 80 000 repeated exposure measurements from a variety of industries and consequently combined variance components of location and worker (within a location within a job) to estimate the bandwidth of individual average exposures within a job. This allowed estimating percentiles one and two standard deviations (SD) above the median of workers' exposure distribution within a job (across locations/companies). RESULTS: range 1-4) with a median 2.5. CONCLUSION: By applying a default bandwidth factor to an average exposure estimate resulting from a quantitative JEM, the Dutch occupational disease compensation scheme has chosen for an approach that recognises between-worker differences in exposure. This approach, in addition to considering uncertainty in exposure-response associations, addresses another important factor of uncertainty in ascertaining occupational disease based on the 'presumably plausible' principle.
Authors: Hans Kromhout, Dick J J Heederik
Institution: Utrecht University
Language: English
Subfield: Occupational Therapy
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7129024939