The Women and Their Children’s Health (WaTCH) study: methods and design of a prospective cohort study in Louisiana to examine the health effects from the BP oil spill

Peters, Edward S.; Rung, Ariane L.; Bronson, Megan H; Brashear, Meghan; Peres, Lauren C.; Gaston, Symielle A.; Sullivan, Samaah; Peak, Kate; Abramson, David M.; Fontham, Elizabeth T.H.; Harrington, Daniel J.; Oral, Evrim; Trapido, Edward

doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2016-014887

Cited by 14 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…The GuLF STUDY which is a prospective study designed to investigate the relationships between oil spill exposures and multiple potential physical and mental health effects may shed more light on the long-term adverse effects of oil spill exposure in affected populations ( 37 ). The Women and Their Children’s Health study has been designed to evaluate the mid-term to long-term physical, mental, and behavioral health effects of the oil spill exposure ( 8 , 38 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Development of Long-Term Adverse Health Effects in Oil Spill Cleanup Workers of the Deepwater Horizon Offshore Drilling Rig Disaster

D’Andrea¹,

Reddy²

2018

Front. Public Health

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BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to assess the long-term adverse health effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill exposure in workers who participated in its cleanup work.MethodsMedical charts of both the oil spill exposed and unexposed subjects were reviewed. The changes in the white blood cells, platelets, hemoglobin, hematocrit, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), aspartate amino transferase (AST), alanine amino transferase (ALT) levels, as well as their pulmonary and cardiac functions were evaluated.ResultsMedical records from 88 subjects (oil spill cleanup workers, n = 44 and unexposed, n = 44) were reviewed during initial and 7 years follow up visits after the disaster occurred. Compared with the unexposed subjects, oil spill exposed subjects had significantly reduced platelet counts (×103/µL) at their initial (254.1 ± 46.7 versus 289.7 ± 63.7, P = 0.000) and follow-up (242.9 ± 55.6 versus 278.4 ± 67.6, P = 0.000) visits compared with the unexposed subjects (254.6 ± 51.9 versus 289.7 ± 63.7, P = 0.008). The hemoglobin and hematocrit levels were increased significantly both at their initial and follow-up visits in the oil spill exposed subjects compared to the unexposed subjects. Similarly, the oil spill exposed subjects had significantly increased ALP, AST, and ALT levels at their initial and follow-up visits compared with those of the unexposed subjects. Illness symptoms that were reported during their initial visit still persisted at their 7-year follow-up visit. Notably, at their 7-year follow-up visit, most of the oil spill exposed subjects had also developed chronic rhinosinusitis and reactive airway dysfunction syndrome as new symptoms that were not reported during their initial visit. Additionally, more abnormalities in pulmonary and cardiac functions were also seen in the oil spill exposed subjects.ConclusionThis long-term follow-up study demonstrates that those people involved in the oil spill cleanup operations experiences persistent alterations or worsening of their hematological, hepatic, pulmonary, and cardiac functions. In addition, these subjects experienced prolonged or worsening illness symptoms even 7 years after their exposure to the oil spill.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Development of Long-Term Adverse Health Effects in Oil Spill Cleanup Workers of the Deepwater Horizon Offshore Drilling Rig Disaster

D’Andrea¹,

Reddy²

2018

Front. Public Health

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“…A limitation of the current study is that almost all participants had been exposed to the 2005 hurricanes. 32 Another possible explanation for the increase in depressive scores is the impact of oil spills on social ties. Reductions in social support are associated with post-disaster psychological symptoms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Details of the study have been presented elsewhere. 32 Briefly, women were randomly recruited through an address-based sampling frame and were eligible to participate if they were between 18 and 80 years old and lived in the study area at the time of the oil spill. A first round of telephone interviews was conducted between July 2012 and August 2014; follow-up data were collected by telephone between September 2014 and June 2016.…”

Section: Methods Study Design and Populationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Long-Term Effects of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on Women’s Depression and Mental Distress

Rung

Oral

Fontham

et al. 2018

Disaster med. public health prep.

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“…See reference for details. 224 Potentially traumatic events were identified using the Life Events Checklist (LEC) for DSM-5. 141 The PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) was used to assess PTSD over the lifetime by interviewers.…”

Section: The Women and Children's Health Study (Wach; Supplementary Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Largest genome-wide association study for PTSD identifies genetic risk loci in European and African ancestries and implicates novel biological pathways

Nievergelt

Klengel

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common and debilitating disorder. The risk of PTSD following trauma is heritable, but robust common variants have yet to be identified by genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We have collected a multi-ethnic cohort including over 30,000 PTSD cases and 170,000 controls. We first demonstrate significant genetic correlations across 60 PTSD cohorts to evaluate the comparability of these phenotypically heterogeneous studies. In this largest GWAS meta-analysis of PTSD to date we identify a total of 6 genome-wide significant loci, 4 in European and 2 in African-ancestry analyses. Follow-up analyses incorporated local ancestry and sex-specific effects, and functional studies. Along with other novel genes, a non-coding RNA (ncRNA) and a Parkinson's Disease gene, PARK2, were associated with PTSD. Consistent with previous reports, SNP-based heritability estimates for PTSD range between 10-20%. Despite a significant shared liability between PTSD and major depressive disorder, we show evidence that some of our loci may be specific to PTSD. These results demonstrate the role of genetic variation contributing to the biology of differential risk for PTSD and the necessity of expanding GWAS beyond European ancestry.Comparability of PGC2 studies PGC2 compiled the largest collection of global PTSD GWAS to date, with subjects recruited from both clinically deeply characterized, small patient groups and large cohorts with self-reported PTSD symptoms. We did not restrict the type of trauma subjects were exposed to, and trauma included both civilian and/or military events, often with pre-existing exposure to childhood trauma. To evaluate the comparability of these phenotypically heterogeneous studies we first estimated genetic correlations with LDSC, 15 a method that leverages GWAS summary results, the only data type available to PGC-PTSD for several of the larger military and non-US cohorts. We found significant genetic correlations (r g ) between studies using a cross-validation approach including all PGC2 EUA subjects (10 runs with studies randomly placed into 2 groups; mean r g = 0.56, mean SE = 0.23, mean p = 0.029, Supplementary Table 8).Next, additional analyses on the UK Biobank cohort (UKBB) were performed. This cohort comprises a very large proportion of the data, with almost as many EUA cases as the rest of the EUA PGC2 combined (referred to as PGC1.5). PTSD screening in UKBB was based on self-reported symptoms from a mental health survey. 16 We found a considerable genetic correlation between the UKBB and PGC1.5 EUA subjects (r g = 0.73, SE = 0.21, p = 0.0005; Supplementary Table 9). Further, sensitivity analyses in the UKBB using 3 alternative inclusion criteria for PTSD cases and controls showed stable correlations with PGC1.5 (P1 -P3; r g = 0.72 -0.79; Supplementary Table 10). Subsequent analyses were based on the UKBB phenotype including the largest number of subjects (P1; N = 126,188). Sex-stratified genetic correlations support the findings of a significant genetic signal...

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The Women and Their Children’s Health (WaTCH) study: methods and design of a prospective cohort study in Louisiana to examine the health effects from the BP oil spill

Cited by 14 publications

References 42 publications

The Development of Long-Term Adverse Health Effects in Oil Spill Cleanup Workers of the Deepwater Horizon Offshore Drilling Rig Disaster

The Development of Long-Term Adverse Health Effects in Oil Spill Cleanup Workers of the Deepwater Horizon Offshore Drilling Rig Disaster

The Long-Term Effects of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on Women’s Depression and Mental Distress

Largest genome-wide association study for PTSD identifies genetic risk loci in European and African ancestries and implicates novel biological pathways

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