Changes of blood cholinesterase activities among pesticides-exposed agricultural workers in Iraq: A meta-analysis
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Numerous studies in Iraq have attempted to determine blood cholinesterase (ChE) activities with varying results in agricultural workers and veterinarians exposed to pesticides. This meta-analysis answers the specific inquiry of whether or not blood ChE activities decrease in agricultural workers exposed previously to pesticides. The meta-analysis included 14 records of blood ChE activities extracted from 12 studies after employing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). These records comprised ChE activities in agricultural workers exposed to pesticides (n = 635) versus their respective control cohorts (n = 416). We employed the one-group random effects model for the meta-analysis and the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS) to examine study quality. The combined effect size of pesticides exposed group (% ChE activity versus control) was significant at 86.13 %. Heterogeneity (I 2 = 49.86 %) was moderate. Subgroup analysis of the enzyme source (plasma/serum and erythrocytes/whole blood) revealed that plasma effect size was significant at 82.36 % compared to erythrocytes (92.08 %), which was not significant. No publication bias existed. The studies were of high quality (NOS ≥ 7). The present study is the first meta-analytic report of associating reduced blood ChE activities with pesticides exposure in Iraqi agricultural workers. Reduced pseudo ChE (plasma, serum) activity was the most significant indicator of pesticides exposure. Nevertheless, we recommend biomonitoring erythrocyte and even whole blood ChE activities in pesticides-exposed individuals, because of scarce information on the type and frequency of pesticides employed by Iraqi agricultural workers. Our findings call for a national integrated plan and improved regulations for safer and judicious pesticides applications and follow-up practices in Iraq in order to reduce potential health hazards and environmental risks. • The present study is the first meta-analytic report of associating reduced blood ChE activities with pesticides exposure in Iraqi agricultural workers. • The combined effect size of pesticides exposed group (% ChE activity versus control) was significantly reduced to 86.13 %. • Reduced pseudo cholinesterase (plasma, serum) activity to 82.36 % was the most significant indicator of pesticides exposure. • A national integrated plan and improved regulations for safer and judicious pesticides applications and follow-up practices are needed in Iraq in order to reduce potential health hazards and environmental risks.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.012 | 0.020 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.003 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.011 | 0.057 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.005 | 0.005 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".