Creating Health History
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better health for everyone! 2003 Report SEPTEMBER Over the Creating 40,000 Mark! Health History As of July 31, 2003 the AHS-2 office had t is with great pleasure and gratitude received 40,127 com- that I write to you, the very special pleted questionnaires. I40,000 Adventist members who have Another 26,000 ques- already become part of AHS-2. tionnaires have been Collectively your efforts with the ques- distributed. Researchers tionnaire represent at least 100,000 are hopeful that all hours of time. We are very fortunate to questionnaires can be have such an interested and helpful completed and returned group of members. You make possible because each person an extraordinary gain in knowledge contributes valuable about diet and cancer. data to the study. So you have completed your question- Dr. Gary Fraser, Principal Investigator 125,000 naire. What is your future role in the study? Let me briefly tell you about few weeks. If we do later ask to review 66,476 some of our future plans. See also page 7. the record of a hospitalization, be 40,127 The questionnaire is the first half of assured that we understand the sensitive the essential information that we nature of medical records. As a practicing All churches to July 31, 2003 need—it is by far the most complicated physician I guarantee it the same respect Progress Results and time-consuming part. You have told and confidentiality that I afford the goal enrolled us how you eat and exercise and some records of any patient in my medical returned facts of your past medical history. The practice. The First questionnaires other essential information that we need Hopefully, we will have reached our Annual Newsletter pertains to your health experience in the enrollment goal of 125,000 by the end of years after you enroll in AHS-2. In par- the first 5 years (still 3 years away). But This is the first annual ticular, any new cancers or heart attacks this is just the beginning! A study like newsletter and report that you experience. Only then can we this has the potential to find health from AHS-2. Every year relate your lifestyle to the risk of these answers for decades to come. So what during the course of the unfortunately common health problems. you, and we at Loma Linda, have start- study, you, the partici- We will gather much of this infor- ed is quite a grand endeavor that should pants will be the first to mation about new cancers using the still be thriving long after my retire- receive the report. We computer to match against state and ment! I hope that you will find mem- trust you find it inform- national records. However, occasionally bership in AHS-2 a positive and satisfy- ative and we welcome we may need to review a recent ing experience. We very much look for- your comments. Pass hospitalization record. Of course, we ward to our partnership with you in this the newsletter on to will need your permission. So every research over many years. You will make others—it may encour- two years, you will receive a short two- a difference. age them to join. page form on which to report any With many thanks, It will also be posted recent hospitalizations. Gary E. Fraser, MD, PhD on our web page: The first such form will be sent in a Principal Investigator adventisthealthstudy.org . that the earlier Adventist Did Health Studies (1960 and 1976) were the first studies to discover Did you know that the earlier you many relationships between diet Adventist Health Studies were and disease? among the first to discover know… that eating fruit and vegetables reduced the risk of cancer? Recruitment Plans 2002-2005 he big challenge in the first four years of the study is to sign-up Tmembers and collect 125,000 questionnaires. There are two strategies. One is advertising in church papers and on TV. However, the major strategy is a roll out of the study across the country confer- ence-by-conference and church-by-church. Each church is asked to conduct a focused promotion over a 12-week period. Some of the AHS-2 staff at Loma Linda Sign-up of members started in California in February 2002. We are now recruiting in the Lake Union and shall begin in the Southern 50 Working At States during 2004. The AHS-2 Office At our AHS-2 office there are two recruitment teams. The one for t present there are over 50 full- Black/African American churches has a goal of 45,000 and is led by A time or part time employees in Dr. Patti Herring. AHS-2. It is a large operation. The other team led by Dr. Terry Butler works with all the other There are 10 senior researchers, English-speaking churches and has a goal of 80,000 returned ques- 4 programmers, several research tionnaires. Although major promotion for the Pacific, North Pacific associates, nutritionists, data techni- and Mid-American Unions has taken place, we plan to revisit these cians, scanner operators, telephonists conferences as many churches had delayed promotion. and a number of special teams to care for the various aspects of the study. Union Goal Start of main promotion The Processing Center distributes Pacific 28,412 February 2002 all the enrollment supplies, mails and North Pacific 15,741 September 2002 receives, records and stores all the ques- Mid-America 10,015 January 2003 tionnaires. The two recruitment teams maintain contact with all the pastors, Lake 11,990 August 2003 churches and local coordinators. At Atlantic 13,144 September 2003 times one research associate may have Columbia 17,349 January 2004 300 churches in various stages of pro- Southern 28,696 January 2004 motion. Other teams are preparing for Southwestern 10,194 March 2004 additional sub-studies. Data management, quality control, and data processing are other very It’s Not Too Late! important functions. A large electronic If you know of members who have the scanner very accurately reads more than questionnaire but haven’t returned it, tell 2000 data fields (possible answers) in them that it’s not too late. And it’s not too each questionnaire and translates your late for others to enroll. responses to a computer file. The com- Dr. Fraser says, “While there is no imme- puter informs us of important missing diate deadline, the sooner the question- data and a telephonist may contact you naires are returned the better.” “But we if these are important omissions. Thus don’t want anyone to miss out, and we will there is a great deal of work that goes continue to enroll members through 2005.” on controlling the quality of the data that we will finally use. 2 Did you know that Adventist Did you know that Adventist Health Study-1 was the first to Health Study-1 was the first to discover that whole wheat bread discover that eating nuts reduced reduced the risk of heart the risk of heart disease? Those disease? Eating whole who ate nuts 5 or more times a wheat bread instead of week had 50% less risk of heart white bread reduced nonfatal attack than those who ate nuts heart attack risk by about 45%. less than once a week. 222 Churches Prominent Professors Confer With Reach Goal Research Team ongratulations to the 222 churches HS-2 is fortunate to have seven Cthat, as of July 31 2003, have Adistinguished professors from achieved 100% or more of leading academic institutions around the their goal of country as a part of the consulting team. returned ques- These people readily share their tionnaires. research experience and expertise to Some Another 330 assist Adventist Health Study-2. Questions churches have The consultants committee meets for- Missed between 75%-99% mally once a year to review progress and Dr. Larry Beeson, in of goal. These data make recommendations. These charge of the data only include churches researchers value the contributions made quality control, says, “In in the Pacific, North a large questionnaire it Pacific and Mid America Unions where is easy for people to major promotion efforts have taken miss answering ques- place. tions. Sometimes two Check out the web page, pages are turned www.adventisthealthstudy.org for a together and whole complete listing of churches and their pages are missed out.” current progress. In that case or if impor- Smaller sized churches, with goals tant questions are left less than 25, have generally done blank, an AHS-2 repre- better than larger churches. Churches Consultant committee October 2002 sentative will contact are challenged to have 24% of their you by mail or tele- members involved in the study. The by the previous Adventist Health Studies phone to complete the 24% of membership goal was based on and recognize the potential of the new missing information. participation rates in an earlier pilot study to make new discoveries in health. Dr. Beeson encour- study. Anything you can do to help Dr. Ross (University of Southern ages everyone to your church meet its goal, such as California), Dr. Paffenbarger (Stanford double check that all encouraging or helping a fellow University) and Dr. Austin (Oregon questions are answered member complete their questionnaire, Health Science University) have served before mailing back would be great. on this committee for more than twenty the questionnaire. years. The others are Dr. Kolonel Age No Barrier (University of Hawaii at Manoa), Dr. Our oldest person in the study is a 110-year-old Kushi (Division of Research, Kaiser great-great grandmother.