A Cohort Study of Smoking Prevention and Health Promotion for Middle School Students in Wuhan, China
Condition: Asthma
MeSH terms: Asthma
Study type: Observational

Summary: 
      We propose to add a collection of buccal cells to a school-based cohort of 7th graders in
      Wuhan, a large industrial city in China. The cohort study is being conducted by the Wuhan
      Public Health and Anti-Epidemic Station (Li Yan MD, director and principal investigator). The
      cohort study is designed to look at several outcomes. One is initiation of smoking. The
      second is respiratory health in relation to active and passive smoking and other
      environmental exposures that are prevalent in Wuhan. The respiratory outcomes include changes
      in pulmonary function, asthma and other respiratory symptoms. Collection of buccal cells is a
      noninvasive method of obtaining DNA. The addition of a genetic sample will enable us to
      examine candidate gene associations for asthma and childhood respiratory illness within an
      interesting and well-characterized Chinese population. In addition, it provides the
      capability to examine gene environment interaction with respect to common environmental
      exposures in Wuhan. The ability to examine gene-environment interaction can help to identify
      relatively subtle effects of pollutants such as environmental tobacco smoke which is becoming
      a very common exposure due to the major increase in smoking among Chinese men. Other
      exposures of interest in Wuhan are indoor coal burning and high ambient exposures to
      particules, ozone and nitrogen oxides. The proposed study has been approved by the human
      subjects committee of the Wuhan Public Health and Anti-Epidemic Station....
    

Detailed description: 
      We propose to add a collection of buccal cells to a school-based cohort of 7th graders in
      Wuhan, a large industrial city in China. The cohort study is being conducted by the Wuhan
      Public Health and Anti-Epidemic Station (Li Yan MD, director and principal investigator). The
      cohort study is designed to look at several outcomes. One is initiation of smoking. The
      second is respiratory health in relation to active and passive smoking and other
      environmental exposures that are prevalent in Wuhan. The respiratory outcomes include changes
      in pulmonary function, asthma and other respiratory symptoms. Collection of buccal cells is a
      noninvasive method of obtaining DNA. The addition of a genetic sample will enable us to
      examine candidate gene associations for asthma and childhood respiratory illness within an
      interesting and well-characterized Chinese population. In addition, it provides the
      capability to examine gene environment interaction with respect to common environmental
      exposures in Wuhan. The ability to examine gene-environment interaction can help to identify
      relatively subtle effects of pollutants such as environmental tobacco smoke which is becoming
      a very common exposure due to the major increase in smoking among Chinese men. Other
      exposures of interest in Wuhan are indoor coal burning and high ambient exposures to
      particules, ozone and nitrogen oxides. The proposed study has been approved by the human
      subjects committee of the Wuhan Public Health and Anti-Epidemic Station.
    

Observational model: Cohort
Time perspective: Cross-Sectional
Keywords: Asthma; Pulmonary Function; Air Pollution; Genetic Polymorphism; Environmental Tobacco Agents