Nurses' study to focus on occ health hazards
One hundred thousand nurses may soon be part of an effort that could lead to a safer health care workplace.
The third phase of the Nurses' Health Study will include extensive questions on occupational risks, says Janet Rich-Edwards, ScD, associate professor with the Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health and an investigator with the study.
In fact, employee health nurses are among those who are being recruited. The study is looking for RNs, LPNs and nursing students between the ages of 20 and 46 (www.nhs3.org). Unlike previous versions of the study, the questionnaires will be available online.
The Nurses' Health Study began in 1976 and was expanded in a second phase in 1989. More than 200,000 nurses have participated. Many of the findings related to diet and lifestyle links to cancer and heart disease risk. For example, the study found current oral contraception use and post-menopausal hormone therapy increased breast cancer risk.
"The original Nurses' Health Study cohort and Nurses II were funded by the National Cancer Institute. The original aims were to look at lifestyle predictors of breast cancer risk," says Rich-Edwards, who is director of developmental epidemiology at the Connors Center for Women's Health and Gender Biology of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
With the online version, study investigators will be able to ask more detailed follow-up questions based on nurses' responses, says Rich-Edwards. The study will include more occupational questions. For example, if nurses report that they work with anti-neoplastic agents, they would then answer more detailed questions about the nature of that work and the use of protective equipment.
About 90% of the nurses remain actively engaged in the study, which issues questionnaires every two years.
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