Pesticide exposure and self-reported incident depression among wives in the Agricultural Health Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Depression in women is a public health problem. Studies have reported positive associations between pesticides and depression, but few studies were prospective or presented results for women separately.

Objectives

We evaluated associations between pesticide exposure and incident depression among farmers' wives in the Agricultural Health Study, a prospective cohort study in Iowa and North Carolina.

Methods

We used data on 16,893 wives who did not report physician-diagnosed depression at enrollment (1993-1997) and who completed a follow-up telephone interview (2005-2010). Among these wives, 1054 reported physician diagnoses of depression at follow-up. We collected information on potential confounders and on ever use of any pesticide, 11 functional and chemica

SUBMITTER: Beard JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3805780 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature