A Research Update from the Agricultural Health Study: Recent Findings, Current Work, and Future Plans

It has been over 25 years since participants first enrolled in the Agricultural Health Study (AHS) cohort; in 1993-97, a total of 89,655 individuals joined the study, including 52,394 private pesticide applicators (mostly farmers) and 32,345 of their spouses from North Carolina and Iowa, and 4,916 commercial applicators from Iowa. The cohort has been followed through 3 surveys (1999-2003, 2005-2010, and 2012-2015) and regular linkages to databases to assess both cancer and non-cancer health outcomes, such as respiratory, autoimmune, endocrine, and neurological diseases. Participants provided detailed data on pesticide use and other agricultural exposures at enrollment and in the first two follow-up surveys, and numerous research papers have investigated potential disease associations. Many participants have also contributed to special studies, including recent projects on Lung Health, Biomarkers of Exposure and Effect, and Memory and Aging. This presentation will highlight a selection of recent findings from the AHS (i.e., in the past 5 years), including a focus on non-cancer outcomes as well as recent cancer and mortality findings, and will describe current and future research priorities.

At the end of this webinar participants will be able to:

1.  An overview of the study design and the assessment of exposures and health outcomes
2. Scope of research and selected findings on non-cancer health outcomes
3. Highlights of recent mortality and cancer findings
4. Description of current and future research priorities