Lung Health Study

The Genetic and Environmental Influences on Adult Asthma in the Agricultural Health Study (AHS) also known as the Agricultural Lung Health Study (ALHS) is a nested case-control study of current asthma. The parent study, AHS, is a prospective cohort including private pesticide applicators, predominantly farmers and henceforth referred to as farmers, (N=52,395) and their spouses (N=32,347) from Iowa and North Carolina, who enrolled between 1993 and 1997 by completing a baseline questionnaire. ALHS participants were identified from among the 44,130 respondents (24,171 farmers and 19,959 spouses) to the third AHS follow-up questionnaire administered by phone from 2005-2010, and included 1,223 current symptomatic asthma cases (prevalent and incident) and 2,078 randomly selected non-cases. The ALHS was conducted by Drs. London, David Umbach, and Dale Sandler (NIEHS), Dr. Jane Hoppin (North Carolina State University), Dr. Paul Henneberger (NIOSH), Drs. Joel Kline and Peter Thorne (University of Iowa), and Drs. Michael Alavanja and Laura Beane-Freeman (NCI). The study proposes to better understand the relationship among farm exposures, inflammatory pathways, and asthma in farm residents, including assessment of the role of genetic variation in the inflammatory response pathways to these environmental exposures.

Field specialists conducted home visits in North Carolina and Iowa and collected anthropometric measurements including height, weight, waist circumference, and fat-free body mass; measured indoor temperature and humidity; measured blood pressure and resting heart rate; conducted respiratory testing, including measurement of exhaled nitric oxide (NO) levels, and spirometry (pulmonary function testing) both pre and post bronchodilator administration; collected blood, urine, and vacuumed dust samples; administered an in-person interview about acute exposures that might confound or modify specimen measurements; and used Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to collect one measurement of latitude and longitude at each residence. A questionnaire supplementing exposure and respiratory illness histories collected from the AHS interviews was also administered by telephone following the home visit. Home visits were conducted between 2009-2013. Data and specimen analyses are ongoing.

*Additional requirements for scientific collaboration using AHS data*
The Agricultural Health Study is funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in collaboration with the US EPA and NIOSH. The AHS encourages researchers to collaborate with the AHS to focus on specific health issues related to farming practices. These studies are designed to leverage the data collected from participants.

Please visit the AHS cohort website for more information regarding the policies and process for collaboration:
http://aghealth.nih.gov/collaboration/process.html

Protocol #08-E-N136: Genetic and Environmental Influences on Adult Asthma in the Agricultural Health Study: Lung Health in the Agricultural Health Study