30-year follow-up of the UK-ECRHS cohort
Research type
Research Study
Full title
European Community Respiratory Health Survey IV follow-up by postal questionnaire
IRAS ID
315005
Contact name
Elaine Fuertes
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
The European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) is a multicentre, international population-based study which assesses asthma, allergy and respiratory health in European adults as they age using standardized protocols. The ongoing core consortium consists of 27 centres in 13 countries, 2 centres of which are in the UK (Norwich and Ipswich). Participants in the ECRHS were recruited in the early 1990s for the first assessments, and since then, have filled in postal questionnaires and attended clinical assessments twice more (1999-2003 and 2010-2014).
We are now seeking permission to re-contact 980 individuals from the two UK centres (Norwich and Ipswich) who filled in a postal questionnaire in 1999-2003 to assess their current health status.
To do this, we will send an invitation letter, participant information sheet, consent form, short questionnaire (4-pages) and pre-paid envelope to their last known home addresses. The short questionnaire will ask the same questions about respiratory and allergic symptoms as in previous ECRHS postal questionnaires and some basic information on COVID-19. Similar research efforts are ongoing in the other ECRHS centres outside of the UK, following local ethical approval processes.
LAY SUMMARY OF STUDY RESULTS:
The European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) is a multicentre, international population-based study which examines asthma, allergy and respiratory health in European adults as they age using standardized protocols. It is currently one of the longest running cohorts specifically established to evaluate respiratory health in adults recruited from the general population.The ongoing core consortium consists of 27 centres in 13 countries, 2 centres of which are in the UK (Norwich and Ipswich). Participants in the ECRHS were recruited in the early 1990s for the first assessments, and also filled in postal questionnaires and attended clinical assessments twice more (1999-2003 and 2010-2014).
The current project re-contacted everyone who participated in the second follow-up (1999-2003, n=1034) in the two UK centres (Norwich and Ipswich) to assess their current health status in 2022-2023.
To do this, we sent an invitation letter, participant information sheet, consent form, short questionnaire (4-pages) and pre-paid envelope to their last known home addresses. The short questionnaire asked the same questions about respiratory and allergic symptoms as in previous ECRHS postal questionnaires and some basic information on COVID-19. Similar research efforts are ongoing in the other ECRHS centres outside of the UK, following local ethical approval processes.
We received responses from 371 UK-participants in total, of which 3 people were removed as their reported age fell outside of the expected range, and 4 others were removed as they did not provide sufficient consent. The total final sample size is thus 364 individuals.
The new data collected is now cleaned and integrated with the larger existing ECRHS database, which will allow meaningful longitudinal analyses of respiratory health and its risk factors using data covering nearly the entire period of respiratory decline (data covering ~30 years is available). These analyses will be led by the UK as well as other international centres involved in the ECRHS.
The first such analysis is currently underway led by Imperial College London (expected completion July 2025), and will aim to
• Describe the pattern of respiratory symptom prevalence in adults as they age
• Describe how these respiratory symptom patterns impact on COPD development in later life.
• Assess how risk factors (e.g. sex, atopy) and changes in risk factors (e.g. smoking, BMI, air pollution) in early adulthood (collected in ECRHS I-III) impact on these respiratory symptom patterns and COPD onset in later life.REC name
West Midlands - Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/WM/0217
Date of REC Opinion
27 Oct 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion