Quantifying the burden of disease due to environmental risk factors in children and adolescents in Germany - the UKAGEP project

Abstract

Introduction <BR>Environmental Burden of Disease (EBD) estimates are increasingly used by scientists to inform decision-makers about environmental risk factors causing ill-health. Currently, no up-to-date national estimates of the EBD are available for Germany. Children and adolescents represent a group vulnerable to the effects of environmental risk factors. Therefore, the research project UKAGEP aims to estimate the EBD of 16 risk factors for children aged between 3 and 17 years of age in Germany. <BR>Methods <BR>The UKAGEP project uses the EBD methodology and its core measure, the disability-adjusted life year (DALY). Current exposure and human-biomonitoring data derived in the currently ongoing population-representative German Environmental Survey (GerES 2014-2017) are used to estimate the exposure of children in Germany. Combined with exposure-response functions (ERF) and data on the related health effects, DALYs will be estimated. The ERF will be derived from or updated by systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses. To take into account cumulative chronic effects, probabilistic modeling will be performed. Furthermore, it is also necessary to estimate the potential future burden, because many current exposures might affect health after a long lag-period. <BR>Results <BR>The concentration of most environmental hazards is expected to be rather low. However, some of the risk factors might still pose a considerable threat at population level, especially if both effects of mortality and morbidity are considered. Furthermore, the estimated future burden will show how current exposures will impact the health of children living with todays exposures in the upcoming years. <BR>Conclusions <BR>The UKAGEP study will present the EBD of a set of known hazards, but will also provide insights on newly emerging risk factors. It is also envisaged to strengthen the use of human-biomonitoring data and methods of probabilistic modelling in EBD assessments. <BR>Financial support of the GerES by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and financial support of the KiGGS study by the German Federal Ministry of Health is gratefully acknowledged. We also thank the Robert Koch Institute for its support in this collaborative study.<P>In: AbstractsConference proceedings: 8th InternationalConference on Childrens Health and the Environment ;14-16 September 2016/ International Network on Childrens Health and Safety. Barcelona: 2016, INCHES, S. 144-145