%0 Journal Article %T Characterizing Short-Term Jobs in a Population-Based Study %+ Institut Armand Frappier (INRS-IAF) %+ Université de Montréal (UdeM) %A Parent, Marie-Elise %A Richard, Hugues %A Sauvé, Jean-François %Z Funding support for PROtEuS was provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (grant no. PJT-159704), the Canadian Cancer Society (grants no. 13149, 19500, 19864, 19865), the Cancer Research Society, the Fonds de Recherche du Québec—Santé, Fonds de Recherche du Québec—Santé—Réseau de Recherche en Santé Environnementale, and the Ministère du Développement économique, de l’Innovation et de l’Exportation du Québec. M.E.P. and J.F.S. received career awards and a fellowship, respectively, from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec—Santé %< avec comité de lecture %@ 2398-7308 %J Annals of Work Exposures and Health %I Oxford University Press %P wxz026 %8 2019-04-15 %D 2019 %R 10.1093/annweh/wxz026 %M 30982846 %K case-control studies %K retrospective exposure assessment %K short-term employment %Z Life Sciences [q-bio]Journal articles %X Work histories generally cover all jobs held for ≥1 year. However, it may be time and cost prohibitive to conduct a detailed exposure assessment for each such job. While disregarding short-term jobs can reduce the assessment burden, this can be problematic if those jobs contribute important exposure information towards understanding disease aetiology.OBJECTIVE: To characterize short-term jobs, defined as lasting more than 1 year, but less than 2 years, in a population-based study conducted in Montreal, Canada.METHODS: In 2005-2012, we collected work histories for some 4000 participants in a case-control study of prostate cancer. Overall, subjects had held 19 462 paid jobs lasting ≥1 year, including 3655 short-term jobs. Using information from interviews and from the Canadian Classification and Dictionary of Occupations, we characterized short-term jobs and compared them to jobs held ≥2 years.RESULTS: Short-term jobs represented <4% of subjects' work years on average. Forty-five per cent of subjects had at least one short-term job; of these, 49% had one, 24% had two, and 27% had at least three. Half of all short-term jobs had been held before the age of 24. Short-term jobs entailed more often exposure to fumes, odours, dust, and/or poor ventilation than longer jobs (17 versus 13%), as well as outdoor work (10 versus 5%) and heavy physical activity (16 versus 12%).CONCLUSIONS: Short-term jobs occurred often in early careers and more frequently entailed potentially hazardous exposures than longer-held jobs. However, as they represented a small proportion of work years, excluding them should have a marginal impact on lifetime exposure assessment. %G English %Z The authors would like to thank Louise Nadon, Ramzan Lakhani, Mounia Senhaji Rhazi, and Robert Bourbonnais who carried out the occupational coding in PROtEuS. %L pasteur-02133222 %U https://riip.hal.science/pasteur-02133222 %~ RIIP %~ INRS-IAF