We are writing to all the birth cohorts in Europethat we know have an interest in environment and health to ask them to participate in this coordinating action (list attached). We have already contacted quite a number of them and leaders in various projects such as GA2LEN, ESCAPE, HIWATE and they have agreed to participate. We would like you to read the text below and let us know if you are interested in taking part in this proposal. We need an answer very soon since the deadline for submission is 25 February. Besides extracting currently available information, we also hope to generate new information (but are limited to what can be done within a coordinating action and available funding) and we have proposed a number of ideas, but other ideas are welcome. Please indicate if you are interested in any asap (and correct any incorrect information), and whether you are willing to take the lead of any of the ideas/WPs.

Several studies have found that the experience of stressful life events (ranging from more severe events, such as divorce or bereavement, to daily hassles, such as family-related obligations) can lead to symptoms of depression. However, the impact of these events varies, and not everyone who experiences a stressful event goes on to experience depression. We’re interested in studying whether cognitive vulnerability, the tendency to make negative causal inferences about an event, can explain this difference (i.e., is an effect modifier). That is, the interpretation of the event, rather than exposure to the event alone, may be particularly important for predicting future depression. This study aims to investigate how the impact of stressful events varies between people, and why certain people go on to experience depression while others do not. These findings could inform potential targets for interventions which intend to prevent depressive symptoms.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) and psoriasis affect a substantial percentage of the population. The mechanisms of disease, endotypes, co-morbidities of these diseases remain poorly understood. There is need to define the heterogeneous and homogeneous aspects of AD and psoriasis and identify the impact of environmental factors, genetic factors and molecular pathways. This will give rise to more precise targeted treatments. The BIOMAP project will bring together existing resources from European cohorts and industry to meet this challenge. ALSPAC, with it's rich longitudinal phenotyping and molecular data is well suited to contribute to this project.

Aims

(i) Whether changes in bone size relative to body size contribute to the increased risk of fracture during puberty will be established, by examining the relationship between longitudinal changes in these parameters across puberty.

(ii) Whether the higher risk of fracture in pubertal boys compared to girls is related to gender differences in bone size relative to body size will be determined.

(iii) Whether small bone size relative to body size represents a stable trait that once established in childhood persists following puberty will be investigated.

Observing that an exposure (e.g. higher meat intake) is associated with an outcome (e.g. higher BMI) does not necessarily mean that the exposure caused the outcome. Other factors may "confound" the association by causing both the exposure and the outcome. Such confounding can be difficult to detect if the factors responsible have not been measured. A recent study proposed a method to detect confounding by unmeasured variables if they cause discontinuous variation in the exposure. We intend to develop this method further and apply it to the question of whether eating meat affects a person's BMI. The method should tell us whether simple observation of people's meat intake and BMI reveals the causal effect or is confounded.

A recent large scale evidence review has demonstrated the importance of exclusive breastfeeding to 6 months with partial breastfeeding continued though the first year of life, but few studies have considered whether starting solids earlier than 5-6 months, but with continued breastfeeding, increases the risk to health or causes earlier cessation of breastfeeding.
The review also found new evidence from the developing world that giving extra iron in children who are not short of iron may cause increased infections and slower growth. Formula milks which have higher iron content than either breast milk or doorstep milk are currently recommended from 6 months to 12 months where an infant is not breastfeeding to prevent iron deficiency anaemia and iron fortified follow on formulas are widely advertised. However the potential risks of iron supplemented formula milks have never been examined.

More than 20% of children will experience a traumatic event before they are 16 years old. Of those who experienced a trauma, a sizable minority will develop Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and other deleterious developmental, health, and psychiatric consequences (herein called Child Traumatic Stress). To diminish the considerable burden of traumatic stress on children and their families, the capacity to predict a child’s risk and to intervene to diminish this risk is extremely important. The literature on prediction of child traumatic stress from risk factors has yielded only modest results and - of those risk factors found to be predictive – it is difficult to determine which represent processes would lead to a diminution of risk, if effective intervention were applied. Almost certainly, traumatic stress results from a complex set of interacting bio-behavioral and social environmental processes, unfolding in specific ways over the course of development, and related to specific aspects of the traumatic exposure. Our project aims to apply state-of-the-art Machine Learning predictive modeling methods with a wide array of risk variables from the ALSPAC data set to generate reliable and accurate predictive models of PTSD and other child traumatic stress outcomes. We also aim to apply advanced non-experimental causal discovery algorithms to discover potentially remediable processes leading to traumatic stress outcomes that may reveal new opportunities for preventative intervention.

The proposal is to continue the collaborative work we have been doing with this Swiss group over the past few years. Ben Spycher was a Marie Curie Fellow who worked with ALSPAC data previously. Prof Kuehni leads eth Leicester Asthma Cohorts and has established the Swiss Paediatric Airway Cohort (SPAC). OUr joint objective is to discover influences that determine the onset and progression of asthma in children, how asthma varies between individuals in type and severity and whether we can predict the outcome of asthma using individuals' information. The data in eth Leicester adn Swiss cohorts is complementary to data held in ALSPAC and we have had joint publications where ALSPAC is able to replicate findings in the other cohorts run by the Swiss group.