1Department of Public Health Sciences, Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
2Department of Preventive Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
3Department of Information Statistics, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, Korea
4Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon, Korea
5Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Inha University Hospital, Incheon, Korea
6Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Suwon, Korea
7Humidifier Disinfectant Health Center, National Institute of Environmental Research, Incheon, Korea
© 2025, Korean Society of Epidemiology
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Conflict of interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare for this study.
Funding
This work was supported by grants from the National Institute of Environment Research (NIER), funded by the Ministry of Environment (MOE) of the Republic of Korea (NIER-2024-04-03-001).
Acknowledgements
We sincerely thank all compensation applicants for their invaluable contributions, including completion of the survey questionnaire and sharing of medical records. The study sponsor had no role in the data analysis, interpretation, or decision to submit this manuscript for publication.
Author contributions
Conceptualization: Kang S, Hwang JI, Kim SH, Lim H, Lee DW, Lee W, Kim JH, Kim KN. Data curation: Kang S. Formal analysis: Kang S. Funding acquisition: Kim KN. Methodology: Kang S, Kim SH, Kim KN. Project administration: Kim KN. Visualization: Kang S. Writing – original draft: Kang S, Hwang JI, Kim KN. Writing – review & editing: Kang S, Kim SH, Lim H, Lee DW, Lee W, Kim JH, Yu S, Lim J, Kim Y, Kim KN.
Characteristics | Total | Lung cancer | No lung cancer | p-value1 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Overall | 3,605 | 121 (3.4) | 3,484 (96.6) | |
Sex | 0.21 | |||
Male | 1,707 | 64 (3.7) | 1,643 (96.3) | |
Female | 1,898 | 57 (2.5) | 1,841 (97.5) | |
Age at initial exposure (yr) | 0.14 | |||
20-39 | 1,892 | 37 (2.0) | 1,855 (98.0) | |
40-49 | 553 | 26 (4.7) | 527 (95.3) | |
≥50 | 1,160 | 58 (5.0) | 1,102 (95.0) | |
Education level | <0.01 | |||
Middle school or lower | 689 | 35 (5.1) | 654 (94.9) | |
High school | 1,034 | 39 (3.8) | 995 (96.2) | |
College or higher | 1,882 | 47 (2.5) | 1,835 (97.5) | |
Tobacco smoking status | <0.01 | |||
Never smoker | 2,386 | 66 (2.8) | 2,320 (97.2) | |
Current or former smoker | 1,219 | 55 (4.5) | 1,164 (95.5) | |
Survival status (as of 2021) | <0.01 | |||
Survived | 2,858 | 51 (1.8) | 2,807 (98.2) | |
Deceased | 747 | 70 (9.4) | 677 (90.6) |
Variables | Total (n=3,605) | Lung cancer (n=121) | No lung cancer (n=3,484) | p-value1 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Duration of humidifier disinfectant use (mo) | <0.01 | |||
<5 | 240 | 2 (0.8) | 238 (99.2) | |
5-14 | 909 | 14 (1.5) | 895 (98.5) | |
15-29 | 934 | 23 (2.5) | 911 (97.5) | |
≥30 | 1,522 | 82 (5.4) | 1,440 (94.6) | |
Distance from humidifier (m) | 0.02 | |||
<0.5 | 1,173 | 45 (3.8) | 1,128 (96.2) | |
0.5-0.9 | 1,304 | 54 (4.1) | 1,250 (95.9) | |
1.0-1.9 | 839 | 16 (1.9) | 823 (98.1) | |
≥2.0 | 276 | 6 (2.2) | 270 (97.8) |
Humidifier disinfectant usage period (mo) | Mean±SD | Min | Median | Max |
---|---|---|---|---|
Total | 34.2±32.3 | 0.1 | 24 | 221 |
Lung cancer | 53.4±37.9 | 1.0 | 45 | 180 |
No lung cancer | 33.5±31.9 | 0.1 | 24 | 221 |
Duration (mo) | n | Person-years | Lung cancer | Mean±SD (yr)2 | HR (95% CI) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Categorical variable | |||||
<5 | 240 | 3,042.5 | 2 | 52.4±13.4 | 1.00 (reference) |
5-14 | 909 | 12,215.4 | 14 | 53.1±12.8 | 1.81 (0.41, 7.97) |
15-29 | 934 | 13,518.7 | 23 | 55.3±13.2 | 2.45 (0.58, 10.41) |
≥30 | 1,522 | 25,189.4 | 82 | 59.4±13.2 | 4.61 (1.12, 18.91) |
Continuous variable | |||||
Per-1 | 3,605 | 53,966.2 | 121 | 56.3±13.4 | 1.01 (1.00, 1.01) |
Characteristics | Total | Lung cancer | No lung cancer | p-value |
---|---|---|---|---|
Overall | 3,605 | 121 (3.4) | 3,484 (96.6) | |
Sex | 0.21 | |||
Male | 1,707 | 64 (3.7) | 1,643 (96.3) | |
Female | 1,898 | 57 (2.5) | 1,841 (97.5) | |
Age at initial exposure (yr) | 0.14 | |||
20-39 | 1,892 | 37 (2.0) | 1,855 (98.0) | |
40-49 | 553 | 26 (4.7) | 527 (95.3) | |
≥50 | 1,160 | 58 (5.0) | 1,102 (95.0) | |
Education level | <0.01 | |||
Middle school or lower | 689 | 35 (5.1) | 654 (94.9) | |
High school | 1,034 | 39 (3.8) | 995 (96.2) | |
College or higher | 1,882 | 47 (2.5) | 1,835 (97.5) | |
Tobacco smoking status | <0.01 | |||
Never smoker | 2,386 | 66 (2.8) | 2,320 (97.2) | |
Current or former smoker | 1,219 | 55 (4.5) | 1,164 (95.5) | |
Survival status (as of 2021) | <0.01 | |||
Survived | 2,858 | 51 (1.8) | 2,807 (98.2) | |
Deceased | 747 | 70 (9.4) | 677 (90.6) |
Variables | Total (n=3,605) | Lung cancer (n=121) | No lung cancer (n=3,484) | p-value |
---|---|---|---|---|
Duration of humidifier disinfectant use (mo) | <0.01 | |||
<5 | 240 | 2 (0.8) | 238 (99.2) | |
5-14 | 909 | 14 (1.5) | 895 (98.5) | |
15-29 | 934 | 23 (2.5) | 911 (97.5) | |
≥30 | 1,522 | 82 (5.4) | 1,440 (94.6) | |
Distance from humidifier (m) | 0.02 | |||
<0.5 | 1,173 | 45 (3.8) | 1,128 (96.2) | |
0.5-0.9 | 1,304 | 54 (4.1) | 1,250 (95.9) | |
1.0-1.9 | 839 | 16 (1.9) | 823 (98.1) | |
≥2.0 | 276 | 6 (2.2) | 270 (97.8) |
Humidifier disinfectant usage period (mo) | Mean±SD | Min | Median | Max |
---|---|---|---|---|
Total | 34.2±32.3 | 0.1 | 24 | 221 |
Lung cancer | 53.4±37.9 | 1.0 | 45 | 180 |
No lung cancer | 33.5±31.9 | 0.1 | 24 | 221 |
Duration (mo) | n | Person-years | Lung cancer | Mean±SD (yr) |
HR (95% CI) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Categorical variable | |||||
<5 | 240 | 3,042.5 | 2 | 52.4±13.4 | 1.00 (reference) |
5-14 | 909 | 12,215.4 | 14 | 53.1±12.8 | 1.81 (0.41, 7.97) |
15-29 | 934 | 13,518.7 | 23 | 55.3±13.2 | 2.45 (0.58, 10.41) |
≥30 | 1,522 | 25,189.4 | 82 | 59.4±13.2 | 4.61 (1.12, 18.91) |
Continuous variable | |||||
Per-1 | 3,605 | 53,966.2 | 121 | 56.3±13.4 | 1.01 (1.00, 1.01) |
Values are presented as number or number (%). Using chi-square tests for sex and survival status and Cochran–Armitage trend tests for all other variables.
Values are presented as number or number (%). Using Cochran–Armitage trend tests.
SD, standard deviation; Min, minimum; Max, maximum.
HR, hazard ratio; CI, confidence interval; SD, standard deviation. The results were analyzed using Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for sex, age at initial exposure, education level, tobacco smoking status, and distance from the humidifier. Mean age at the end of follow-up.