Pahwa Punam, Karunanayake Chandima P, Hagel Louise, Janzen Bonnie, Pickett William, Rennie Donna, Senthilselvan Ambikaipakan, Lawson Josh, Kirychuk Shelley, Dosman James
Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture, Royal University Hospital, University of Saskatchewan, 103 Hospital Drive, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 0W8, Canada.
BMC Res Notes. 2012 Aug 1;5:400. doi: 10.1186/1756-0500-5-400.
Respiratory disease can impose a significant burden on the health of rural populations. The Saskatchewan Rural Health Study (SRHS) is a new large prospective cohort study of ages 6 and over currently being conducted in farming and non-farming communities to evaluate potential health determinants associated with respiratory outcomes in rural populations. In this article, we describe the rationale and methodology for the adult component.The study is being conducted over 5 years (2009-15) in two phases, baseline and longitudinal. The baseline survey consists of two components, adults and children. The adult component consists of a questionnaire-based evaluation of individual and contextual factors of importance to respiratory health in two sub populations (a Farm Cohort and a Small Town Cohort) of rural families in Saskatchewan Rural Municipalities (RMs). Clinical studies of lung function and allergy tests are being conducted on selected sub-samples of the two cohorts based on the positive response to the last question on the baseline questionnaire: "Would you be willing to be contacted about having breathing and/or allergy tests at a nearby location?". We adopted existing population health theory to evaluate individual factors, contextual factors, and principal covariates on the outcomes of chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and obstructive sleep apnea.
Of the RMs selected to participate, 32 (89%) out of 36 RMs and 15 (94%) out of 16 small towns within the RMs agreed to participate. Using the mail out survey method developed by Dillman, we obtained completed questionnaires from 4264 households (8261 individuals). We obtained lung function measurements on 1609 adults, allergy skin test information on 1615 adults; both measurements were available on 1549 adults. We observed differences between farm and non-farm rural residents with respect to individual, contextual factors and covariates.
There are differences between farm and non-farm rural residents with respect to individual and contextual factors and other variables of importance. The findings of the SRHS will improve knowledge of respiratory disease etiology, assist in the development and targeting of prevention programs, and in planning health services with farm and small town populations.
呼吸系统疾病会给农村人口的健康带来沉重负担。萨斯喀彻温农村健康研究（SRHS）是一项针对6岁及以上人群的新的大型前瞻性队列研究，目前正在农业和非农业社区开展，以评估与农村人口呼吸结果相关的潜在健康决定因素。在本文中，我们描述了成人部分的基本原理和方法。该研究为期5年（2009 - 2015年），分两个阶段进行，即基线阶段和纵向阶段。基线调查包括两个部分，成人部分和儿童部分。成人部分包括对萨斯喀彻温农村自治市（RMs）农村家庭的两个亚人群（农场队列和小镇队列）中对呼吸健康重要的个体和背景因素进行基于问卷的评估。基于对基线问卷最后一个问题的肯定回答：“您是否愿意就附近地点进行呼吸和/或过敏测试而被联系？”，对两个队列的选定子样本进行肺功能临床研究和过敏测试。我们采用现有的人群健康理论来评估个体因素、背景因素以及慢性支气管炎、慢性阻塞性肺疾病、哮喘和阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停结果的主要协变量。
在选定参与的农村自治市中，36个中有32个（89%）以及这些农村自治市内16个小镇中的15个（94%）同意参与。使用迪尔曼开发的邮寄调查方法，我们从4264户家庭（8261人）获得了完整的问卷。我们对1609名成年人进行了肺功能测量，对1615名成年人进行了过敏皮肤测试信息采集；两项测量数据在1549名成年人中均有。我们观察到农场和非农场农村居民在个体、背景因素和协变量方面存在差异。
农场和非农场农村居民在个体和背景因素以及其他重要变量方面存在差异。萨斯喀彻温农村健康研究的结果将提高对呼吸系统疾病病因的认识，有助于制定和确定预防计划的目标，并为农场和小镇人群规划卫生服务。
