Institute and Clinic for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, University Hospital, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Munich, Germany.
Comprehensive Pneumology Centre Munich, German Centre for Lung Research, Munich, Germany.
Front Public Health. 2021 Mar 4;9:591717. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.591717. eCollection 2021.
Asthma and allergies are complex diseases affected by genetic and environmental factors, such as occupational and psychosocial factors, as well as interactions between them. Although childhood is a critical phase in the development of asthma and allergies, few cohort studies on occupational outcomes followed up participants from childhood onwards. We present design, methods, and initial data analysis for the third follow-up of SOLAR (Study on Occupational Allergy Risks), a prospective and population-based German asthma and allergy cohort. The SOLAR cohort was initially recruited in 1995-1996 for Phase II of the German branch of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC II) and followed up three times since, in 2002-2003, 2007-2009, and 2017-2018. During the third follow-up (SOLAR III), participants were between 29 and 34 years old. Since SOLAR focuses on occupational exposures, follow-ups were conducted at important points in time of the development of participants' career. To evaluate the potential of selection bias, responders and non-responders were compared based on variables from earlier study phases. In responders, frequency and pattern of missing values were examined and compared within the subsets of paper and online versions of the used questionnaires. In total, 1,359 participants completed the questionnaire of the third follow-up (47.3% of eligible participants). Initially, the cohort started with 6,399 participants from the ISAAC II questionnaire study. A selection process led to a study population that is more female, higher educated, smokes less and has a higher proportion of certain asthma and allergy symptoms (also in their parents) than the initial cohort. Pattern and frequency of missing values were different for paper and online questionnaires. The third follow-up of the SOLAR cohort offers the opportunity to analyze the course of asthma and allergies and their associations to environmental, occupational and psychosocial risk factors over more than 20 years from childhood to adulthood. Selection processes within the cohort might lead to bias that needs to be considered in future analyses.
哮喘和过敏是受遗传和环境因素影响的复杂疾病,例如职业和社会心理因素,以及它们之间的相互作用。虽然儿童期是哮喘和过敏发展的关键阶段,但很少有队列研究从儿童期开始随访职业结局。我们介绍了 SOLAR(职业过敏风险研究)的第三次随访的设计、方法和初步数据分析,这是一项前瞻性的、基于人群的德国哮喘和过敏队列研究。SOLAR 队列最初是在 1995-1996 年为国际儿童哮喘和过敏研究(ISAAC II)的德国分支的第二期招募的,并在 2002-2003 年、2007-2009 年和 2017-2018 年进行了三次随访。在第三次随访(SOLAR III)中,参与者的年龄在 29 岁至 34 岁之间。由于 SOLAR 专注于职业暴露,因此随访是在参与者职业发展的重要时间点进行的。为了评估选择偏差的可能性,根据早期研究阶段的变量比较了应答者和非应答者。在应答者中,检查并比较了问卷纸质版和在线版的缺失值的频率和模式。共有 1359 名参与者完成了第三次随访的问卷(合格参与者的 47.3%)。最初,该队列从 ISAAC II 问卷调查研究开始有 6399 名参与者。一个选择过程导致研究人群中女性更多、受教育程度更高、吸烟更少,并且某些哮喘和过敏症状(包括其父母)的比例更高,比最初的队列。纸质版和在线版问卷的缺失值的模式和频率不同。SOLAR 队列的第三次随访提供了机会,从儿童期到成年期,分析超过 20 年的哮喘和过敏的发展过程及其与环境、职业和社会心理危险因素的关联。队列内的选择过程可能会导致偏差,在未来的分析中需要考虑这些偏差。