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Birth Cohort Consortium of Asia: Current and Future Perspectives
Reiko Kishi1, Jun Jim Zhang, Eun-Hee Ha
1From the aCenter for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan; bMOE and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; cDepartment of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Ewha Medical Research Center, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea; dInstitute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, National Taiwan University College of Public Health, Taipei, Taiwan; eDepartment of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan; fDepartment of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; gState Key Lab of Reproductive Medicine, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China; hHamamatsu University School of Medicine, Research Center for Child Mental Development, Hamamatsu, Japan; iTohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan; jGraduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea; kDepartment of Pediatrics, Childhood Asthma Atopy Center, Environmental Health Center, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea; lEnvironmental Health Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea; mThe Korean Institute of Child Care and Education (KICCE), Seoul, South Korea; nDepartment of Natural Resource Science, Nutrition and Dietetics Programme, School of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, George Town, Malaysia; oDepartment of Natural Resource, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; pCarolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC; qDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, National University Health System, Singapore; rSingapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore; sNational Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli County, Taiwan; tDepartment of Epidemiology and Public Health, Kanazawa Medical University, Uchinada, Ishikawa, Japan; uInstitute of Medical, Pharmaceutical and Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan; vBiomedical and Pharmaceutical Research Center, Vietnam Military Medical University, Ha Noi, Vietnam; and wNational Institute of Health Sciences, Kalutara, Sri Lanka.
Background:
The environmental health of children is one of the great global health concerns. Exposures in utero and throughout development can have major consequences on later health. However, environmental risks or disease burdens vary from region to region. Birth cohort studies are ideal for investigating different environmental risks.
Methods:
The principal investigators of three birth cohorts in Asia including the Taiwan Birth Panel Study (TBPS), the Mothers and Children's Environmental Health Study (MOCEH), and the Hokkaido Study on Environment and Children' Health (Hokkaido Study) coestablished the Birth Cohort Consortium of Asia (BiCCA) in 2011. Through a series of five PI meetings, the enrolment criteria, aim of the consortium, and a first-phase inventory were confirmed.
Results:
To date, 23 birth cohorts have been established in 10 Asian countries, consisting of approximately 70,000 study subjects in the BiCCA. This article provides the study framework, environmental exposure and health outcome assessments, as well as maternal and infant characteristics of the participating cohorts.
Conclusions:
The BiCCA provides a unique and reliable source of birth cohort information in Asian countries. Further scientific cooperation is ongoing to identify specific regional environmental threats and improve the health of children in Asia.