EXPO-SACCO

Comparing different EXPOsure models to be used in a case-control Study on the Association between Childhood Cancer and air pOllution

Background
Childhood cancer is usually a devastating disease both for the children and for their relatives. It also represents a public health challenge in terms of social costs and inequalities among and within countries. A growing body of research has addressed a broad range of potential risk factors. However, the etiology of child-hood cancer remains poorly understood.
Exposure to outdoor air pollution has been associated with different types of childhood cancer but evidence remains inconclusive, particularly for childhood cancers other than leukaemia. In fact, epidemiological research on air pollution and childhood cancer has produced results that are still inconclusive and conflict-ing for most types of cancer. Furthermore, several methodological questions have arisen in the field that require high quality data on outcome, exposure, confound-ers, and effect modifiers.
In relation to the estimation of exposure, several modelling approaches have been used to this purpose. However, there is a lack of agreement on which model-ling approach to be used.
The effect of measurement errors and the influence of this error on a study, also known as information bias, is of paramount importance in environmental epide-miology. In fact, measurement errors can affect epidemiological studies by pro-ducing differential or non-differential misclassification of persons under study.
Aim of the study
Within this project, we aim at comparing the exposure dataset routinely used by the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz (MPIC) and the one used within the German National Cohort study (NAKO). The research question is: Can both modelling approaches be interchangeably used to estimate the expo-sure to air pollutants, within a study on the effects of air pollution on childhood cancer?

The project has been founded by EXPOHEALTH.

Coordinator of the project: Hiba Oqba

Supervisor: Dr. Emilio Gianicolo