PA Health and Environment Studies: Study 1 (Childhood cancer case-control study)
Recently Completed
Cancer case recruitment: Recruitment letters were mailed to all eligible case families of children with pediatric cancers as of June 30th, 2022, and we have interviewed 145 case families.
Control recruitment: Recruitment letters were mailed to 2,000 matched control families of children without pediatric cancers as of June 30th, 2022, and we have interviewed 126 control families.
In Progress
Recruitment efforts are ongoing to enroll families who have not already participated in our study. We will continue mailing recruitment packets to eligible families throughout the coming months.
We are planning in-person informational sessions for study-eligible families which will occur throughout the study area in July and August 2022.
Challenges/Solutions
We have adapted the survey to allow for SMS text message enrollment and increased the user-friendliness of its smartphone format. We have also adapted the survey into a paper-based option, in addition to the telephone and online questionnaire formats already offered for maximum ease of use by participants.
PA Health and Environment Studies: Study 2 (Asthma and birth cohort studies)
Recently Completed
Birth outcomes: Linkages between residential location and environmental, exposure, and census data are completed.
Asthma: We continued quality assurance checks and descriptive analyses.
Exposure: We calculated unconventional natural gas development well activity metrics for the birth outcomes cohort.
In Progress
We have begun statistical analyses associated with the birth outcomes study.
We are performing quality assurance checks and descriptive analyses for the asthma cohort file.
We are continuing to evaluate additional data sources related to unconventional natural gas activities and other industries in the eight-county study area (Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland Counties).
