Firestone Ridvan, Cheng Soo, Pearce Neil, Douwes Jeroen, Merletti Franco, Pizzi Costanza, Pivetta Emanuele, Rusconi Franca, Richiardi Lorenzo
Centre for Public Health Research, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand.
JMIR Res Protoc. 2015 Jun 12;4(2):e71. doi: 10.2196/resprot.3873.
International collaborative cohorts the NINFEA and the ELF studies are mother-child cohorts that use the internet for recruitment and follow-up of their members. The cohorts investigated the association of early life exposures and a wide range of non-communicable diseases.
The objective is to report the research methodology, with emphasis on the advantages and limitations offered by an Internet-based design. These studies were conducted in Turin, Italy and Wellington, New Zealand.
The cohorts utilized various online/offline methods to recruit participants. Pregnant women who became aware volunteered, completed an online questionnaire, thus obtaining baseline information.
The NINFEA study has recruited 7003 pregnant women, while the ELF study has recruited 2197 women. The cohorts targeted the whole country, utilizing a range of support processes to reduce the attrition rate of the participants. For the NINFEA and ELF cohorts, online participants were predominantly older (35% and 28.9%, respectively), highly educated (55.6% and 84.9%, respectively), and were in their final trimester of pregnancy (48.5% and 53.6%, respectively).
Internet-based cohort epidemiological studies are feasible, however, it is clear that participants are self-selective samples, as is the case for many birth cohorts. Internet-based cohort studies are potentially cost-effective and novel methodology for conducting long-term epidemiology research. However, from our experience, participants tend to be self-selective. In marked time, if the cohorts are to form part of a larger research program they require further use and exploration to address biases and overcome limitations.
国际合作队列研究NINFEA和ELF研究是母婴队列研究，它们利用互联网招募成员并进行随访。这些队列研究调查了早期生活暴露与多种非传染性疾病之间的关联。
报告研究方法，重点阐述基于互联网设计的优势和局限性。这些研究在意大利都灵和新西兰惠灵顿进行。
这些队列利用各种在线/离线方法招募参与者。知晓研究的孕妇自愿参与，完成一份在线问卷，从而获取基线信息。
NINFEA研究招募了7003名孕妇，而ELF研究招募了2197名女性。这些队列以全国为目标群体，利用一系列支持流程来降低参与者的流失率。对于NINFEA和ELF队列，在线参与者主要年龄较大（分别为35%和28.9%）、受教育程度高（分别为55.6%和84.9%），并且处于妊娠晚期（分别为48.5%和53.6%）。
基于互联网的队列流行病学研究是可行的，然而，很明显参与者是自我选择的样本，许多出生队列研究都是如此。基于互联网的队列研究对于开展长期流行病学研究而言可能具有成本效益且是一种新颖的方法。然而，根据我们的经验，参与者往往具有自我选择性。随着时间的推移，如果这些队列要成为更大研究项目的一部分，它们需要进一步应用和探索以解决偏差并克服局限性。
