ELEVATED RISK OF ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE AMONG WORKERS WITH LIKELY ELECTROMAGNETIC-FIELD EXPOSURE

We conducted a case-control study of the possible association of occup ations with likely exposure to electromagnetic fields and Alzheimer's disease (AD) with patients from the Alzheimer Disease Treatment and Di agnostic Center, Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center, Downey, CA. Patient s with definite or probable AD were the case subjects (86 male, 240 fe male). Patients with cognitive impairment/dementia other than vascular dementia were control subjects (76 male, 76 female). The study was li mited to patients who were at least age 65 at the time of their first examination at Rancho Los Amigos. The odds ratio for both sexes combin ed was adjusted for sex, education, and age at onset. The odds ratio f or males was adjusted only for age at onset, and the odds ratio for fe males was adjusted for both education and age at onset. The adjusted o dds ratio for both sexes was 3.93 (p = 0.006), 95% CI = (1.5 to 10.6). For males the adjusted odds ratio was 4.90 (p = 0.01), 95% CI = (1.3 to 7.9), and for females the adjusted odds ratio was 3.40 (p = 0.10), 95% CI = (0.8 to 16.0). These results are consistent with previous fin dings regarding the hypothesis that electromagnetic field exposure is etiologically associated with the occurrence of AD.