Enhancement and Maintenance of the HEALS cohort

项目摘要 水和空气污染是环境暴露的两个来源，可导致严重死亡， 世界各地的发病率。由于基础设施较差，监管执法和认识不足， 水和空气污染的健康负担在发展中国家尤其是在 南亚这项建议主要是针对这两个环境问题， 和丰富我们长期的环境流行病学队列“砷的健康影响纵向 研究（HEALS）”由Ahsan博士及其孟加拉国和美国同事于2000年发起。到目前为止， 队列研究主要是针对饮用砷对健康影响的研究问题 水通过维持队列基础设施，进行更长时间的随访和确定新的健康结果， 我们会大大提高评估砷对健康影响的能力。此外，通过扩展 我们的暴露评估计划，以增加一个新的空气污染监测的全面评估， 通过有针对性的生物样本采集和结果确定，我们将（为研究人员）打开新的机会 利用我们独特的队列研究， 基础设施演进具体而言，我们建议：i）通过确定空气污染， 通过有针对性地丰富临床结果评估基础设施来实现相关的健康结果; ii）增加 通过建立空气污染暴露评估基础设施，确定该群体的暴露特征;以及 iii）通过启动唾液样本收集来丰富我们的生物储存库，用于未来对口腔微生物组的研究， 与环境健康影响有关。HEALS资源已被广泛成功使用， 一群研究人员调查砷、饮食和生活方式暴露对健康的影响，如果有资金支持， 拟议的浓缩和维护活动将为有效调查健康状况打开新的大门。 空气污染的影响，潜在的生物学和预防途径。

PROJECT SUMMARY Water and air pollutions are two sources of environmental exposures that lead to significant mortality and morbidity across the world. Due to poorer infrastructure, inadequate regulatory enforcement and awareness, the health burden of water and air pollution is disproportionately greater in developing countries, especially in South Asia. This proposal addresses primarily these two environmental problems through targeted maintenance and enrichment of our long-standing environmental epidemiology cohort “Health Effects of Arsenic Longitudinal Study (HEALS)” which was initiated by Dr. Ahsan and his Bangladesh and US colleagues in 2000. Thus far, the cohort has been mainly addressing research questions on the health effects of arsenic exposure from drinking water. By maintaining the cohort infrastructure with longer follow-up and ascertainment of new health outcomes, we will substantially enhance our ability to evaluate health effects of arsenic exposure. In addition, by extending our exposure assessment scheme to add a comprehensive assessment of novel air pollution monitoring, coupled with targeted biosample acquisition and outcome ascertainment, we will open new opportunities (to researchers at large) for efficient investigation of health effects of air pollution by taking advantage of our unique cohort infrastructure. Specifically, we propose to: i) refine our cohort maintenance activities by ascertaining air-pollution related health outcomes through targeted enrichment of clinical outcome assessment infrastructure; ii) augment the exposure characterization of the cohort by instituting air pollution exposure assessment infrastructure; and iii) enrich our biorepository by initiating saliva sample collection for future investigation of the oral microbiome in relation to environmental health effects. The HEALS resource has already been successfully used by a wide cadre of researchers investigating the health effects of As, dietary and lifestyle exposures and, if funded, the proposed enrichment and maintenance activities will open new doors for efficient investigation of the health effects of air pollution, the underlying biology, and prevention avenues.