Blood leukocyte count as a systemic inflammatory biomarker associated with a more rapid spirometric decline in a large cohort of iron and steel industry workers

Table 3 The association between dust exposure and white blood cell count and its differential in male workers using linear mixed-effects model (n = 6100)

Variable	WBC (10⁹ cells per L)			NEU (10⁹ cells per L)			LYM (10⁹ cells per L)			MID (10⁹ cells per L)
Variable	β	SE	P	β	SE	P	β	SE	P	β	SE	P
Intercept	7.0064	0.567	< 0.001	4.5810	0.457	< 0.001	2.1658	0.197	< 0.001	0.2124	0.037	< 0.001
Age (year)	− 0.0284	0.005	< 0.001	− 0.0156	0.004	< 0.001	− 0.0126	0.002	< 0.001	− 0.0004	0.000	0.236
Current smoker	0.2943	0.035	< 0.001	0.2174	0.030	< 0.001	0.0862	0.012	< 0.001	0.0137	0.003	< 0.001
Packyears (py)	0.0227	0.002	< 0.001	0.0178	0.002	< 0.001	0.0045	0.001	< 0.001	0.0010	0.0002	< 0.001
BMI (kg/m²)	0.0758	0.005	< 0.001	0.0552	0.004	< 0.001	0.0188	0.002	< 0.001	0.0023	0.0003	< 0.001
Height (m)	− 0.0124	0.003	< 0.001	− 0.0103	0.003	< 0.001	− 0.0019	0.001	0.083	− 0.0001	0.0002	0.686
TIC (yr)	− 0.0409	0.003	< 0.001	− 0.0250	0.002	< 0.001	− 0.0099	0.001	< 0.001	− 0.0053	0.0003	< 0.001
TWEI	− 0.0108	0.024	0.653	0.0270	0.019	0.164	− 0.0312	0.008	< 0.001	− 0.0075	0.002	< 0.001
Years of dust exposure (year)	0.0175	0.005	< 0.001	0.0121	0.004	0.003	0.0045	0.002	0.008	0.0008	0.000	0.018

TWEI time-weighted exposure intensity, BMI body mass index, TIC time in cohort, WBC white blood count, NEU neutrophilicgranulocyte, LYM lymphocyte, MID mid-range absolute count including monocytes, eosinophils and basophils, SE standard error of mean

ISSN: 1465-993X