Environmental epidemiology as a tool to improve the quality of life in industrial environments
1. Main activity 1 Longitudinal cohort study of population health in an industrial region
The objectives of the activity:
- to extend existing research of population health in the industrial region by long-term monitoring and evaluation of population health with the aim to contribute to effectiveness of preventive measures,
- repeated evaluations of special preventive biochemical and immunological tests for earlier detection of emerging diseases in the population,
- to increase research on assessment of associations between health determinants and molecular epidemiological biomarkers for contribution to knowledge about the biological processes of aging.
The activity will be implemented in sub-phases with defined objectives, expected likely outputs, benefits and lessons learned:
- Inventory of available data from existing research
- Preparation of the methodology for the longitudinal cohort study on health status
- Preparation of a methodology for data collection from health records
- Preparation of a methodology for processing data from health records
- Preparation of methodology for data storage and processing (from health records and results of preventive examinations)
- Re-interviewing probands of the middle-aged cohort and obtaining data on health status of the cohort
- Scheduling and implementation of blood sampling
- Biochemical, immunological and special molecular epidemiological tests
- Evaluation of data from the repeated study
- Descriptive statistics of the repeated study data
- Analysis of repeated study data
- Comparison of the results of the first and the repeated study
- Outcomes/publication of results, intellectual property protection, proposal of preventive measures for public health
2. Main activity 2 Evaluation of the influence of psychosocial and socio-economic factors determining the lifestyle and quality of life of the population
The objectives of the activity are:
1. Extend the analyses to maximize data mining in a follow-up detailed analysis of the impact of socioeconomic, psychosocial and lifestyle factors on health and ageing in a cohort of middle-aged persons and a cohort of mothers. Healthy ageing of the population will not only improve the quality of life for individuals but also reduce costs within the healthcare system. Therefore, understanding the factors affecting good health is becoming a public health priority in many countries.
2. Further develop and deepen the assessment of perceptions of the severity of risk factors and subjective health in established cohorts. How a population perceives the impact of risk factors on health quality is an important factor in making primary prevention and health risk communication recommendations. The project outputs will fill a gap in information on risk perception in the population and create a space for health intervention corresponding to the willingness of the population to adopt it according to the severity of the perceived risk.
3. Initiate and further develop studies on the economic valuation of health risks and the health impacts of environmental degradation and other risks under study. The achievement of this objective will complement the assessment of lifetime exposure to chemicals in the environment, quantified in terms of the number of lives lost due to exposure, with a financial quantification of these losses.
- The activity will be implemented in sub-phases with defined objectives, expected likely outputs, benefits and lessons learned:
- Inventory of available data from the HAIE project
- Inventory of available data and outputs of analyses and publications from the ELSPAC project
- Preparation of a questionnaire survey in the framework of the longitudinal monitoring of the HAIE project - first repeated study (after 5 years)
- Implementation of the follow-up study
- Distribution and collection of questionnaires
- Evaluation of the data from the repeated study
- Descriptive statistics of the repeated study data
- Analysis of the repeated study
- Comparison of the first and the repeated study
Outcomes/publication of results, protection of intellectual property, proposal of preventive action for public health
3. Main activity 3 Molecular epidemiological study of a middle-aged cohort
The purpose of the activity is to perform specialised molecular-epidemiological tests in a sub-sample of the cohort under study, to evaluate new biomarkers of exposure, effect, and susceptibility in relation to health status of the population in the industrial area and thus improve the possibility of earlier detection of emerging diseases.
The activity will be implemented in phases with defined objectives, expected likely outcomes, benefits, and lessons learnt.
- Analysis of existing data and results from the HAIE project
- Preparation for new analyses
- Recruitment of additional middle-aged volunteers for the study
- Isolation of samples from middle-aged volunteers in case of lack of material from the HAIE study / isolation of new samples
- Quality control of isolated samples
- Analysis of samples on the Droplet Digital PCR Instrument
- Evaluation of Analyses
- Outputs/publication of results, intellectual property protection.
4. Main activity 4 Neurocognitive and mental health characteristics of children from air polluted and control region.
Main objective of this research activity is to investigate neurocognitive and mental health outcomes of young children in association with air pollution and socioeconomic characteristics. We aim to assess cognitive functioning including memory, language and executive functioning, and emotion regulation as well as affective and behavioural problems in young children aged 5 to 6 years who were born and grew up in region with high air pollution and in control region. We are also interested in how the neurocognitive and mental health outcomes of children associates with prenatal and physiological factors and family circumstances. We will primarily invite participants of the cohort of mothers and newborns that was established between 2019-2024 within Programme 2 of the study Healthy Aging in Industrial Environment. During years 2019 and 2024 around 100 newborns and their mothers were included in the cohort. All mothers filled in the socioeconomic questionnaire and blood samples of the babies were taken. All mothers and children who took part in the prenatal and perinatal testing will be invited to participate in the current follow-up study. We aim to collect follow-up data that will enable us to track children and mothers over 5-6 years and help us to better understand the neurocognitive and mental health of the children. During the first 6 years of human´s life brain increases its volume and function dramatically, therefore highlighting the importance of healthy air and environment and healthy family and socioeconomic circumstances.
The research activity will be conducted in the following periods:
The activity will be implemented in phases with defined objectives, expected likely outcomes, benefits, and lessons learnt.
- Sociodemographic analysis of the existing cohort of children established between 2019-2024 and selection of relevant participants
- Preparation of the testing battery and scales for neurocognitive and mental health assessment of children, preparation of the questionnaires for parents of participated children
- Preparation and training of the team in collecting data
- Contacting parents of the potential participants, pilot assessment
- Data collection
- Scoring, assessment and analysis of the collected data
- Statistical analysis
- Presenting results at international conferences and research meetings
- Publication of results in international journals and recommendations within public health prevention
