Shared Medical and Environmental Risk Factors in Dry Eye Syndrome, Sjogren’s Syndrome, and B-Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma: A Case-Control Study
Table 2
Environmental exposures and medical history of study population-unadjusted analysis.
Characteristic
Control () (%)
DES () (%)
SS () (%)
B-NHL () (%)
P ()
Health behaviour:
Ever smoked
91 (43.2)
52 (43.3)
30 (33)
142 (50.7)a
0.01
Alcohol consumption
123 (58.2)
58 (48.7)
25 (27.7)
127 (45.8)
<0.001
Hair dye (ever)
141 (66.8)
71 (59.2)
72 (79.1)
101 (36.1)b
<0.001
Physical activity (>3 times per week)
73 (34.6)
50 (41.7)
39 (42.9)
120 (42.9)
0.008
Art as a hobby
57 (27.0)
41 (34.2)
45 (49.5)
64 (22.9)
<0.001
Medical history:
Blood transfusion (ever)
42 (19.9)
16 (13.3)
22 (24.7)
51 (18.2)
0.20
Self-reported hospitalization for infection
44 (20.8)
55 (45.8)
50 (54.9)
91 (32.5)
<0.001
Any hepatitis
27 (12.8)
20 (16.6)
11 (12.08)
36 (12.9)
0.004
Infectious mononucleosis
27 (12.8)
21 (17.5)
15 (16.5)
28 (10.0)
0.08
Allergy
58 (27.5)
46 (38.3)
38 (41.8)
84 (30.0)
0.26
Asthma
25 (11.8)
21 (17.5)
20 (22.0)
26 (9.3)
0.03
Eczema
27 (12.8)
25 (20.8)
18 (19.8)
42 (15.0)
0.14
Inflammatory bowel disease
3 (1.4)
10 (8.3)
20 (22.0)
11 (3.9)
<0.001
Personal history of AID
20 (9.5)
11 (9.2)
91 (100)
43 (15.3)
<0.001
Occupation (females only)
Health worker
21 (12.5)
29 (35.8)
9 (10.7)
12 (8.4)
Teacher
27 (16.1)
8 (9.9)
17 (20.2)
30 (20.9)
Office worker
91 (54.2)
30 (37.1)
35 (41.7)
47 (32.8)
Agriculture
1 (0.6)
0 (0)
2 (2.4)
4 (2.8)
Housewife/pensioner
16 (9.6)
0 (0)
7 (8.3)
24 (16.8)
Other
5 (2.9)
1 (1.3)
10 (11.9)
9 (6.3)
<0.001
Other exposures:
1st-degree relative with AID
19 (9)
31 (25.8)
33 (36.2)
13 (4.7)
<0.001
1st-degree relative with hematopoietic cancer
13 (6.1)
11 (9.1)
5 (5.5)
38 (13.9)
0.05
Breast-fed
124 (58.8)
72 (60.0)
52 (57.1)
174 (62.1)
0.009
In-house pets/large animals
135 (64.0)
80 (66.7)
55 (60.4)
158 (56.4)
0.22
aNumber of NHL women who have ever smoked: 54 (19.2%). bNumber of NHL women who have dyed their hair: 94 (33.5%). = chi-square test; DES = dry eye syndrome; SS = Sjogren’s syndrome; B-NHL = B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma; AID = autoimmune disease.
