Characteristics of the prospective agricultural cohort studies
| Agricultural Health Study (AHS) | Agriculture and Cancer Study (AGRICAN) | Cancer in the Norwegian Agricultural Population (CNAP) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cohort characteristics | |||
| Number of participants | 57 310 applicators seeking pesticide licenses and 32 346 spouses | 181 747 members of the French health insurance for agriculture (MSA) | 147 134 farm holders and 98 759 spouses, identified in the agricultural censuses from 1969 to 1989 |
| Participants selected for this pooling study | 51 167 private pesticide applicators* (farmers) | 127 282 farmers*,† (49 698 farm workers, 37 474 farm owners and 40 110 who held both functions during their life) | 137 821 farm holders* |
| Geography | Iowa and North Carolina, USA | 11 departments, France (Doubs, Gironde, Côte d'Or, Isère, Loire-Atlantique, Manche, Bas Rhin, Haut Rhin, Somme, Tarn, Vendée) | Norway |
| Gender: male (%) | 49 831 (97) | 71 358 (56) | 116 128 (84) |
| Year of birth: median (range) | 1949 (1901–1983) | 1939 (1900–1985) | 1942 (1925–1971) |
| Year of enrolment (range) | 1993–1997 | 2005–2007 | 1969–1989 |
| Reference | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| Pesticide exposure data | |||
| Crop cultivation | NA‡ | Self-reported lifetime cultivation of 13 crops§ and years of cultivation | Self-reported cultivation of crops at the farm in the year preceding the censuses of 1969, 1974¶, 1979, 1985¶ and 1989 |
| Pesticide application information | Self-reported mixing or application of pesticide products (ever use, duration and first decade of use) | Self-reported pesticide treatment tasks on 11 crops** and start/end years performing tasks | Farm-level pesticide use indicators: money spent on pesticides (1969 census) and presence of pesticide spraying equipment on the farm (1979 census) |
*For cohort-specific exclusions, see online supplementary figure S1.
†Farmers were defined as participants who indicated ever cultivating any of 13 types of crops or ever having any of the five types of animals, and/or had an indication of being a farmer based on the data in their occupational history.
‡Crop cultivation was collected in AHS (current income producing crops in phase I and crops cultivated during the reference year in phase II), but this information was not used to assign pesticide exposure in this pooling project, except for comparing CEM assignments and self-reported use in a subset of phase II participants.
§Grassland, vineyards, corn, wheat or barley, field peas, beets, sunflower, rape, tobacco, orchards, potatoes, other vegetables and greenhouses.
¶The 1974 and 1985 censuses were specific for horticultural crops and only administered to part of the cohort (3636 and 6588 participants, respectively).
**For all the crops listed previously, except for other field-grown vegetables and greenhouses.
NA, not applicable.