Children's health and its association with indoor environments in Danish homes and daycare centres - methods
Children's health and its association with indoor environments in Danish homes and daycare centres - methods
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1600-0668.2012.00777.x
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发表时间：
2012-12-01
期刊：
影响因子：
5.8
通讯作者：
Sigsgaard, T.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Clausen, G.;Host, A.;Sigsgaard, T.
丹麦室内环境与儿童健康研究项目（IECH）的主要目标是探索儿童在室内环境（特别是他们的家庭和日托中心）中经历的各种暴露与他们的福祉和健康之间的联系。目标健康终点是过敏、哮喘和某些呼吸道症状。该研究分为两个阶段。在第一阶段，向17000多个有1至5岁儿童的家庭分发了问卷调查。调查表的重点是儿童的健康状况以及他们居住的家庭和日托机构的环境。共回收了11000多份调查问卷。在第二阶段，选择500名儿童的子样本进行更详细的研究，包括在他们的家中和日托中心进行一系列广泛的测量和临床检查；所有临床检查均由同一名医生进行。在本研究中，提出并讨论了IECH研究计划中用于数据收集的方法。此外，对研究人群的描述和儿童住所和日托中心的选定特征提出了初步发现。本研究概述了未来研究人员可能遵循的方法，这些方法可以对各种室内环境因素与选定的健康终点之间的潜在联系进行大规模实地研究。特别值得注意的是：(i)两阶段设计，一项广泛的基于问卷的调查，然后在根据对问卷的回答选出的一部分参与者中进行一套更密集的测量；（ii）与更常用的病例控制方法相比，第二阶段使用的病例库方法；（iii）在进行密集抽样时纳入儿童日托环境，以更全面地了解儿童的全部室内暴露情况；（iv）由同一名医生进行的所有临床检查。我们认识到，未来的研究者不太可能完全重复本研究中概述的方法，但我们希望它在设计此类研究时可能考虑的因素方面提供一个有用的起点。
The principle objective of the Danish research program Indoor Environment and Childrens Health (IECH) was to explore associations between various exposures that children experience in their indoor environments (specifically their homes and daycare centers) and their well-being and health. The targeted health endpoints were allergy, asthma, and certain respiratory symptoms. The study was designed with two stages. In the first stage, a questionnaire survey was distributed to more than 17 000 families with children between the ages of 1 and 5. The questionnaire focused on the childrens health and the environments within the homes they inhabited and daycare facilities they attended. More than 11 000 questionnaires were returned. In the second stage, a subsample of 500 children was selected for more detailed studies, including an extensive set of measurements in their homes and daycare centers and a clinical examination; all clinical examinations were carried out by the same physician. In this study, the methods used for data collection within the IECH research program are presented and discussed. Furthermore, initial findings are presented regarding descriptors of the study population and selected characteristics of the childrens dwellings and daycare centers. Practical Implications This study outlines methods that might be followed by future investigators conducting large-scale field studies of potential connections between various indoor environmental factors and selected health endpoints. Of particular note are (i) the two-stage design a broad questionnaire-based survey followed by a more intensive set of measurements among a subset of participants who have been selected based on their responses to the questionnaire; (ii) the casebase approach utilized in the stage 2 in contrast to the more commonly used casecontrol approach; (iii) the inclusion of the childrens daycare environment when conducting intensive sampling to more fully capture the childrens total indoor exposure; and (iv) all clinical examinations conducted by the same physician. We recognize that future investigators are unlikely to fully duplicate the methods outlined in this study, but we hope that it provides a useful starting point in terms of factors that might be considered when designing such a study.