Occupational Exposure to Pesticides and Male Mediated Spontaneous Abortion: Evidence of the Last Twenty Years

Abstract

Scientific evidence implicates occupational causes in adverse pregnancy outcomes. This work aims to investigate whether there is an increased risk of spontaneous abortion among wives of men occupationally exposed to pesticides by performing a systematic literature review and a meta-analysis. Epidemiological studies published between 1990 and 2012 concerning spontaneous abortion in relation to occupational exposure to pesticides were identified, selected and analysed under the random effects model. A funnel plot assessed the potential publication bias and a Duval and Tweedie’s Trim and Fill analysis was used to re-compute the effect size. The effect size assessed under the random effects model determined a significant relationship between male exposure to pesticide and the risk of spontaneous abortion (OR=1.32; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.71). By contrast, the Duval and Tweedie’s Trim and Fill analysis suggested that if all missing studies would have been identified, the true effect would not have been significant. Additionally this study proposes that well-conducted studies tend to report lower odds ratios of male mediated spontaneous abortion.