Piccolipiù, a multicenter birth cohort in Italy: protocol of the study

BMC Pediatrics

Domenico Di Lallo³  Luca Ronfani^1,10  Valentina Ziroli¹  Patrizia Volpi^1,10  Erica Valencic^1,10  Morena Trevisan⁸  Veronica Tognin^1,10  Tullia Todros⁷  Virgilia Toccaceli⁴  Maria Antonietta Stazi⁴  Laura Serino⁴  Franca Rusconi^1,11  Lorenzo Richiardi⁸  Assunta Rasulo⁸  Gherardo Rapisardi⁵  Antonella Ranieli^1,11  Daniela Porta¹  Giulia Poggesi^1,11  Carlo Piscicelli²  Elisa Piscianz^1,10  Luana Penna⁴  Lorenza Nisticò⁴  Silvia Narduzzi¹  Isabella Mugelli⁵  Veronica Montelatici^1,11  Emanuela Medda⁴  Franco Merletti⁸  Valentina Martini⁶  Paola Lorusso¹  Claudia Loganes^1,10  Francesca La Rosa²  Chiara Grasso⁸  Giulia Giorgi⁹  Luigi Gagliardi⁹  Alfio Frizzi⁵  Alessandra Fioritto⁶  Valentina Fiano⁸  Laura Felice⁹  Paolo De Bartolo⁶  Martina Culasso³  Rodolfo Cotichini⁴  Valentina Colelli³  Sonia Brescianini⁴  Maura Bin^1,10  Tommaso Bernardini²  Antonio Arnofi⁴  Sabrina Alviti⁴  Liza Vecchi Brumatti^1,10  Francesco Forastiere¹  Sara Farchi³ 

[1] Dipartimento di Epidemiologia del SSR del Lazio-ASL RME, Rome, Italy;Ospedale Cristo Re dell’Istituto Figlie di Nostra Signora a Monte Calvario, Roma, Italy;Laziosanità- Agenzia di Sanità Pubblica della Regione Lazio (Public Health Agency, Lazio Region, Italy), Rome, Italy;CNESPS - Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy;Santa Maria Annunziata Hospital, Bagno a Ripoli, Italy;Casa di Cura Città di Roma, Rome, Italy;Maternal-Fetal Medicine Unit, Department of Surgical Sciences, AO Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino, University of Turin, Turin, Italy;Cancer Epidemiology Unit-CeRMS, Department of Medical Sciences, CPO-Piemonte, University of Turin, Turin, Italy;Department of Woman and Child Health, Ospedale Versilia, Local Health Authority 12, Viareggio, Italy;Institute for Maternal and Child Health – IRCCS “Burlo Garofolo”, Via dell’Istria 65/1, Trieste 34137, Italy;Unit of Epidemiology, “Anna Meyer” Children’s University Hospital, Florence, Italy

关键词: Infant and child health and development;    Early-life exposure;    Birth cohort;   

Others  :  1143831
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2431-14-36

 received in 2013-12-20, accepted in 2014-01-31,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

The fetal and infant life are periods of rapid development, characterized by high susceptibility to exposures. Birth cohorts provide unique opportunities to study early-life exposures in association with child development and health, as well as, with longer follow-up, the early life origin of adult diseases. Piccolipiù is an Italian birth cohort recently set up to investigate the effects of environmental exposures, parental conditions and social factors acting during pre-natal and early post-natal life on infant and child health and development. We describe here its main characteristics.

Methods/design

Piccolipiù is a prospective cohort of expected 3000 newborns, who will be recruiting in six maternity units of five Italian cities (Florence, Rome, Trieste, Turin and Viareggio) since October 2011. Mothers are contacted during pregnancy or at delivery and are offered to participate in the study. Upon acceptance, their newborns are recruited at birth and followed up until at least 18 years of age. At recruitment, the mothers donate a blood sample and complete a baseline questionnaire. Umbilical cord blood, pieces of umbilical cord and heel blood spots are also collected. Postnatal follow-up currently occurs at 6, 12, and 24 months of age using on-line or postal self administered questionnaire; further questionnaires and medical examinations are envisaged. Questionnaires collect information on several factors, including mother’s and/or child’s environmental exposures, anthropometric measures, reproductive factors, diet, supplements, medical history, cognitive development, mental health and socioeconomic factors. Health promotion materials are also offered to parents.

Discussion

Piccolipiù will broaden our understanding of the contribution of early-life factors to infant and child health and development. Several hypotheses on the developmental origins of health can be tested or piloted using the data collected from the Piccolipiù cohort. By pooling these data with those collected by other existing birth cohorts it will be possible to validate previous findings and to study rare exposures and outcomes.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Farchi et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

【 参考文献 】

• [1]Lynch J, Smith GD: A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology. Annu Rev Public Health 2005, 26:1-35.
• [2]Lawlor DA, Andersen AM, Batty GD: Birth cohort studies: past, present and future. Int J Epidemiol 2009, 38:897-902.
• [3]Barker DJ: Maternal nutrition, fetal nutrition, and disease in later life. Nutrition 1997, 13:807-13.
• [4]Gluckman PD, Hanson MA, Cooper C, Thornburg KL: Effect of in utero and early-life conditions on adult health and disease. N Engl J Med 2008, 359:61-73.
• [5]Porta D, Fantini MP, on behalf of the GASPII and Co.N.ER Study Groups: Prospective cohort studies of newborns in Italy to evaluate the role of environmental and genetic characteristics on common childhood disorders. Ital J Pediatr 2006, 32:350-35.
• [6]Richiardi L, Baussano I, Vizzini L, Douwes J, Pearce N, Merletti F, NINFEA cohort: Feasibility of recruiting a birth cohort through the Internet: the experience of the NINFEA cohort. Eur J Epidemiol 2007, 22:831-7.
• [7]Brescianini S, Fagnani C, Toccaceli V, Medda E, Nisticò L, D’Ippolito C, Alviti S, Arnofi A, Caffari B, Delfino D, Ferri M, Penna L, Salemi M, Sereni S, Serino L, Cotichini R, Stazi MA: An update on the Italian twin register: advances in cohort recruitment, project building and network development. Twin Res Hum Genet 2013, 16:190-6.
• [8]Stazi MA, Cotichini R, Patriarca V, Brescianini S, Fagnani C, D’Ippolito C, Cannoni S, Ristori G, Salvetti M: The Italian twin project: from the personal identification number to a national twin registry. Twin Research 2002, 5:382-386.
• [9]Vecchi Brumatti L, Montico M, Russian S, Tognin V, Bin M, Barbone F, Volpi P, Ronfani L: Analysis of motivations that lead women to participate (or not) in a newborn cohort study. BMC Pediatr 2013, 11:13. 53
• [10]Karanikolos M, Mladovsky P, Cylus J, Thomson S, Basu S, Stuckler D, Mackenbach JP, McKee M: Financial crisis, austerity, and health in Europe. Lancet 2013, 381:1323-31.