Causal association in developing breast cancer among female firefighters

WorkSafeBC Evidence-Based Practice Group, Martin CW
Record ID 32018013503
English
Authors' objectives: To determine whether there is any evidence to support the (causal) association in the development of breast cancer among female firefighters.
Authors' results and conclusions: Fifteen published studies were identified from Ovid platform search while the search on NIOSHTIC-2 database did not identify any study. Upon examination on the titles and abstracts of these 15 studies, five studies were thought to be relevant and were retrieved in full for further appraisal. Only the study by Sritharan et al reporting on the cancer risk among firefighters and police in Ontario provided relevant information to the objective of this systematic review. At present, there is some evidence, although statistically not significant, that being a female firefighters may have a protective effect of diagnosed with breast cancer compared to police or non-firefighters. However, this result needs to be interpreted with high caution due to potential effect of confounding and chance.
Authors' methods: A comprehensive and systematic literature search was conducted on March 11, 2024. The search was done on commercial medical literature databases as well as on noncommercial occupational health database. A combination of keywords was employed on this search. No limitation, such as on the language or date of publication, was implemented in this search. A manual search was also done on the references of the articles that were retrieved in full.
Details
Project Status: Completed
URL for project: https://www.worksafebc.com/en/about-us/research-services/evidence-based-medicine-and-systematic-reviews
Year Published: 2024
URL for published report: https://www.worksafebc.com/en/resources/health-care-providers/guides/causal-association-developing-breast-cancer-female-firefighters?lang=en&origin=s&returnurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.worksafebc.com%2Fen%2Fforms-resources%23sort%3DDate%26q%3DCausal%2520Association%2520in%2520Developing%2520Breast%2520Cancer%2520Among%2520Female%2520Firefighters%26f%3Alanguage-facet%3D%5BEnglish%5D%26tags%3DGuide%7C2d7eb4b30f6a4a319e0d40565c9abbab%2CHealth%2520Care%2520Provider%7C13468b0b3f074f6bade3f57ac3cdfb8e%2CSystematic%2520Review%7Cf78c29d570c14ec3b5a394385905df70&highlight=Causal%20Association%20in%20Developing%20Breast%20Cancer%20Among%20Female%20Firefighters
English language abstract: An English language summary is available
Publication Type: Mini HTA
Country: Canada
MeSH Terms
  • Breast Neoplasms
  • Firefighters
  • Female
  • Risk Assessment
  • Occupational Exposure
Keywords
  • female
  • women
  • woman
  • firefighter
  • breast
  • cancer
  • neoplasm
Contact
Organisation Name: WorkSafeBC
Contact Address: 6591 Westminster Highway, Richmond, BC, V7C 1C6 Canada. Tel: 604-231-8417; Fax: 604-279-7698
Contact Name: ebpg@worksafebc.com
Contact Email: ebpg@worksafebc.com
Copyright: WorkSafe BC
This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment from a member of INAHTA or other HTA producer. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database.