Lexicon

Home > Catalogues

Airwave Health Monitoring Study [AWHMS]

Study
Questionnaire
Physical and cognitive measures

GENERAL INFORMATION

Name	Airwave Health Monitoring Study
Acronym	AWHMS
Last update	04/09/2009

Affiliation

Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure [BBMRI]

Principal investigators

David Neasham (Dr.)	Department of Epidemiology, Public Health and Primary Care, Imperial College
Mark Little (Dr.)	Department of Epidemiology, Public Health and Primary Care, Imperial College
Paul Elliott (Dr.)	Department of Epidemiology, Public Health and Primary Care, Imperial College

Contact

Deepa Singh (Dr.)

Department of Epidemiology, Public Health and Primary Care, Imperial College
London W2 1PG
Phone: +44 (0) 20 75943249
Email: d.singh@imperial.ac.uk

Website

http://www.police-health.org.uk/

Funding agency

Home office UK

BACKGROUND

No human epidemiological or occupational study has yet explored the possible short-term or long-term health risk associated with TETRA exposure. Relatively few occupational studies have examined the relationship between microwave radiation and health, and no large-scale study has ever been established among the police force in the UK. AGNIR (Advisory Group On Non-Ionising Radiation) concluded that it was unlikely that the specific features of TETRA technology could pose a risk to health, but made recommendations for further research. Only by including large numbers of people and following their health over many years will it be possible to determine whether or not there may be a health risk associated with TETRA use. By taking part in this study, participants will be helping to further scientific knowledge on this question, which ultimately will help inform risk assessment and may benefit future users of the system.

OBJECTIVES

- Long-term follow-up of health of Police Force to investigate possible long-term health effects associated with Airwave use;
- National health screening;
- Short-term study to investigate effects of Airwave on neuro-cognitive function and electrical activity in the brain (EEG).
The Airwave Health Monitoring Study will examine any possible impact of the use of Airwave on the health of police personnel and at the same time improve upon previous study designs by including: 1) a longer period of follow-up with sufficient numbers of participants (and sufficient statistical data to detect possible health effects), and 2) a better resolution of exposure data leading to better exposure classification.

METHODS

	Legend Yes No Unknown

General design

Study design	Cohort
Type of participants	Individuals
Target or final number of participants	60000
Target or final number of DNA	40000

Participant selection / Characteristics of the population

Selection criteria

Country of residence	United Kingdom
Other criteria	Members of police force service in England, Wales and Scotland

Recruitment procedures

The recruitment procedure will involve sending out invitations to all police forces in the country encouraging them to take part in the study. Once they agree, all the staff (both Airwave users and non-users) in the force would receive a personal invitation by letter containing information about the study and an enrolment questionnaire which will ask about their Airwave and mobile phone usage and also collect some information on their lifestyle. The participants willing to enrol themselves for the long term monitoring study would be offered a free and comprehensive health screen including ECG, blood and urine tests. These recruited people will be followed up long term. The non-airwave users will serve as the control group for our cohort.

Data Sources

Questionnaires to participants/respondents
Direct physical measures
Medical paper
Electronic databases
Genealogical records
Other (Through health screening clinics in all the forces)

Collection procedures

The data is collected in 2 ways-via paper questionnaire and electronically on the laptop and tablet. The paper questionnaire is to enroll the participant into the study and will have basic information and contact details to follow up his health in the future. At the health screening clinics data will be collected electronically on the laptop by the nurse this will be record of all the measurements being done. Another detailed questionnaire will be filled by the participant at the clinics on tablets. The tablet will collect information on family, environmental, occupational, medical etc history. All the electronic data is stored on a secure private network at the Imperial College.

Follow up procedures

Follow up through health records.

Baseline principal variables of interest

Health information

Familial disease history
Early life
Women's health
Quality of life

Physical / Biochemical measures

Body structure measures	Biochemical measures
Body function measures

Sociodemographic Characteristics

Birth location	Parents birth location
Ethnicity/Race	Gender
Marital status	Date of birth

Socioeconomic Characteristics

Education level

Income

Life habits / Behaviours

Physical activity	Smoking / Tobacco Use
Nutrition	Alcohol intake

Physical environment

Passive smoking

Mobile phone use

Sample management

Biological samples

Blood	Buccal cells
Cord blood	Tissues
Saliva	Urine

Biological samples format

	Fresh	Frozen	Dried (paper)	Other	Specification
Blood
Cell lines

GOVERNANCE

	Legend Yes No

Allow access to data or samples to external researchers

Data (questionnaire-derived, measured…)
Biological samples

STATUS

Current status

Phase	Start	End
Preparation phase/Pilot	2003	2005
Recruitment / initial data collection	2003	2012
Follow-up of participants	2003	2018

Supplementary informations

Assessment at 5-yearly intervals: in 1991, 1996, and for a final time in 2001

Current number of participants recruited	14000

Current number of collected DNA samples	--

AVAILABLE DOCUMENTS

	Document type	Availability
1	General study protocol	http://www.police-health.org.uk/
2	Specific protocols/procedures (data collection, samples management, etc.)	d.singh@imperial.ac.uk
3	Questionnaires
4	Physical and cognitive measures
5	DNA processing
6	Consent forms	http://www.police-health.org.uk/
7	Pamphlet / project description	http://www.police-health.org.uk/
8	Governance / ethics documentation	http://www.police-health.org.uk/
9	Other

Detail
Question Block Annotation

General Information

Name	Airwave health screening questionnaire
Last update	03/29/2010
Version or reference year	3.1
Phase	one (recruitment)
Year interval	2004 to --
Supplementary informations	Recruitment component is ongoing in parallel with health screening component.

Questionnaire owner

Imperial college

Contact

Deepa Singh (Dr.)

Imperial College London
London W2 1PG
Phone: +44 (0) 20 75943249
Email: d.singh@imperial.ac.uk

Utilization conditions

Many of the questions may have copyright issues prior to use by 3rd party.

Methods

	Legend Yes No

Respondent

Participant
Proxy

Administration environment

Over the phone
Hospital, clinic, university or recruitment center
Respondent / Proxy residence
Other (Respondent work place)

Administration mode

Auto administered
Auto administrated with face to face validation by trained personnel
Administrated by trained personel / Physician

Administration format

Paper questionnaire
Computerized

Administration language

English

Documents

Available Format

NOTICE: HTML document format may differ slightly from the actual questionnaire. Please refer to the original PDF document for exact reproduction.

Comment

There are 2 sets of questionnaires that are administered in the recruitment component and the health screening component.
The questionnaire in the second component has all the questions from the first component and more.
The questionnaire in the first component is a paper copy while in second component is computerized.

General Information

Name	Airwave health screening questionnaire
Number of Question Blocks	15

Questionnaire and Question Block List

Click on the

to see the block of questions related to a domain or a group of domains.

Block 1

Physical Environment / Environmental exposures / Physical environmental exposures
Physical Environment / Occupational Exposures / Physical Occupational Exposures

Block 2

Health Information / Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified

Block 3

Physical Environment / Environmental exposures / Physical environmental exposures
Physical Environment / Occupational Exposures / Physical Occupational Exposures

Block 4

Physical Environment / Occupational Exposures / Physical Occupational Exposures

Block 6

Physical Environment / Environmental exposures / Physical environmental exposures

Block 7

Health Information / Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified

Block 8

Health Information / Individual Disease history / Diseases of the eye and adnexa

Block 9

Health Information / Individual Disease history / Diseases of the circulatory system
Health Information / Individual Disease history / Diseases of the digestive system
Health Information / Individual Disease history / Diseases of the eye and adnexa
Health Information / Individual Disease history / Diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue
Health Information / Individual Disease history / Diseases of the nervous system
Health Information / Individual Disease history / Diseases of the respiratory system
Health Information / Individual Disease history / Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases
Health Information / Individual Disease history / Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes
Health Information / Individual Disease history / Mental and behavioural disorders
Health Information / Individual Disease history / Neoplasms

Block 10

Health Information / Medical Health Intervention (C239)

Block 11

Life Habits/Behaviours / Tobacco use

Block 12

Physical Environment / Environmental exposures / Chemical environmental exposures / Passive Smoke Exposure

Block 14

Life Habits/Behaviours / Alcohol use

Block 15

Sociodemographic Characteristics / Age/Birth Date / Subject age / birth date

Block 16

Sociodemographic Characteristics / Gender

Block 17

Sociodemographic Characteristics / Residence / Current Residence

General information

Name	Physical and cognitive measures
Last update	04/21/2009
Collected at phase	Baseline
Year interval	2004 to 2010

Contact

Deepa Singh (Dr.)

Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London
London W2 1PG
Phone: +44 (0) 20 75943249
Email: d.singh@imperial.ac.uk