USING A GIS TO DESIGN A CANCER EPIDEMIOLOGY STUDY

描述(申请人的描述)建议项目的目标是 先导试验--设计空间流行病学研究的新技术 聚集的罕见暴露和/或疾病发生率。通常，对稀有动物的研究 暴露和/或罕见疾病确定了具有特定暴露的队列 并采用随访或嵌套病例对照方法。在空间上 聚集的、罕见的曝光，例如接近点源或小面源 (如危险废物场地、工厂)和线路源(如电力 线路、道路、河流)，这可能是极其困难的。在这个项目中， 我们将确定是否可以使用地理信息系统(GIS 有效地定义这样的人口，估计人口的 并量化其风险敞口。为了显示这些方法的实用性， 我们将实施质量保证和验证程序。结果来自 这些程序应该使其他研究人员能够评估 这些和类似的数据和方法也适用于自己的调查。给定 许多研究人员不愿使用新的、未经测试的和已失效的 方法论，我们认为这些努力可能会提供实质性的 鼓励在癌症流行病学中使用新的地理信息系统工具。最后， 我们将利用这些结果进行初步的生态研究。 我们将调查的实质性公共卫生问题是报道的 居民区高空磁场暴露之间的关系 高压电力输电线路和事故的发生 儿童白血病。之前的研究已经调查了患有 接近观察到的曝光范围低端的曝光。通过使用 为了丰富研究人群，使研究对象暴露在严重的环境中，我们 预计会增加曝光梯度，从而增加效果大小 以及更强的统计能力。 这项拟议研究的主要优点是它将发展和 验证新的计算机化识别方法和 流行病学调查的人群特征。这些 这种方法将比传统的现场方法更具成本效益 其中的评估将使用现有的数据库，包括 人口分布在一个大得多的地理区域。我们相信我们的研究 成功的可能性很高，因为很多方法都是 在试点的基础上开发和测试，尽管来自试点的概括 要全面实施，很可能需要进行实质性的修改。

DESCRIPTION (Applicant's Description) The goal of the proposed project is to pilot test a new technique for designing epidemiologic studies of spatially clustered rare exposures and/or rate diseases. Typically, studies of rare exposures and/or rare diseases identify a cohort with a specific exposure and either use a follow up or a nested case-control approach. For spatially clustered, rare exposures, such as proximity to point or small area sources (e.g., hazardous waste sites, factories) and line sources (e.g., power lines, roadways, rivers), this can be extremely difficult. In this project, we will determine if a Geographic Information System (GIS) can be used effectively to define such a population, estimate the population's demographics and quantify its exposure. To show the utility of the methods, we will apply quality assurance and validation procedures. Results from these procedures should enable other researchers to assess the adequacy of these and similar data and methods for their own investigations. Given the reluctance of many researchers to use new, untested and invalidated methodology, we view these efforts as potentially providing substantial encouragement for the use of new GIS tools in cancer epidemiology. Finally, we will use the results to conduct a preliminary ecologic study. The substantive public health question we will investigate is the reported association between residential exposure to magnetic fields from overhead high voltage electric power transmission lines and the incidence of childhood leukemia. Previous studies have investigated populations with exposures toward the low end of the observed range of exposures. By using the GIS to enrich the study population with heavily exposed subjects, we expect to increase the exposure gradient leading to increased effect sizes and increased statistical power. The main strength of this proposed study is that it will develop and validate new computerized methods for the identification and characterization of populations for epidemiologic investigations. These methods will be far more cost effective than traditional, in-the-field assessments in that then will use existing databases encompassing populations over a much larger geographic region. We believe that our study has a high likelihood of success because much of the methodology has been developed and tested on a pilot basis, although generalizations from pilot to full scale will likely require substantial modifications.