PIAMA (Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy) project, 15/16 year investigation

In PIAMA we study asthma and allergy and early development of other chronic
diseases in children. The study started in 1996, children were included before
they were born. In the course of the study they have been approached for
inventarisations, usually through questionnaires but a couple of times through
a medical examination. In the current phase we want to study the influence of
changes in lifestyle, food intake, physical activity and health related
behavior on asthma, allergy and other chronic diseases.

The aim of the current proposal is to investigate the effects of changes in
lifestyle, food intake, physical activity and health related behavior during
adolescence on development of asthma, allergy and other chronic diseases.
Health outcomes that will be studied in the age of 15/16 years are asthma,
other allergic diseases (like eczema and hay fever) and overweight. We will
collect important information on the development and early stages of
cardiovascular disease and diabetes from early markers and we will include
measurements of blood pressure, blood cholesterol and HbA1C levels in blood and
cortisol levels in saliva. And, we will investigate
the genetic determinants, gene-environment interactions and the role of
epigenetic mechanisms in the development of chronic diseases and how single
nucleotide polymoprhisms affect gene transcription and epigenetic regulation.
We will therefore isolate DNA from periferal blood and nasal epithelium cells
for gen-expression.

The people still participating in PIAMA (about 3350) will all be invited to
participate in a medical examination comparable to examinations they have
participated in, before. The examination consists out of anthropometric
measures, bloodpressure measurement, determination of exhaled NO, spirometry
and hyperreactivity, sampling of sputum, nasal epithelium and blood.

Participating in this examination will take at most 2 hours of the
participant's time. The tests we will perform are simple and of little impact
for the participant. There is little or no risk of complications for the
participants.