title: Birth cohorts in asthma and allergic diseases: report of a NIAID/NHLBI/MeDALL joint workshop.
abstract: Population-based birth cohorts on asthma and allergies increasingly provide new insights into the development and natural history of the diseases. More than 130 birth cohorts focusing on asthma and allergy have been initiated in the last 30 years. A National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; Mechanisms of the Development of Allergy (MeDALL; Framework Programme 7 of the European Commission) joint workshop was held in Bethesda, Maryland, on September 11-12, 2012, with 3 objectives: (1) documenting the knowledge that asthma/allergy birth cohorts have provided, (2) identifying the knowledge gaps and inconsistencies, and (3) developing strategies for moving forward, including potential new study designs and the harmonization of existing asthma birth cohort data. The meeting was organized around the presentations of 5 distinct workgroups: (1) clinical phenotypes, (2) risk factors, (3) immune development of asthma and allergy, (4) pulmonary development, and (5) harmonization of existing birth cohorts. This article presents the workgroup reports and provides Web links (AsthmaBirthCohorts.niaid.nih.gov or www.medall-fp7.eu), where the reader will find tables describing the characteristics of the birth cohorts included in this report, the type of data collected at differing ages, and a selected bibliography provided by the participating birth cohorts.
authors.affiliation: University Hospital, Montpellier and INSERM U1018, Villejuif, France. Electronic address: jean.bousquet@inserm.fr.
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bousquet
authors.affiliation: University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wis.
authors.forename: James E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Gern
authors.affiliation: Arizona Respiratory Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.
authors.forename: Fernando D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Martinez
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) and IMIM (Hospital del Mar Research Institute) and CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain; Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Departament de Ciències Experimentals i de la Salut, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Josep M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Anto
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, Mich.
authors.forename: Christine C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, University of Western Australia, and Queensland Children's Medical Research Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: Patrick G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Holt
authors.affiliation: University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wis.
authors.forename: Robert F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Lemanske
authors.affiliation: School of Paediatrics and Child Health, Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.
authors.forename: Peter N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Le Souëf
authors.affiliation: Indiana University School of Medicine, James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children, Indianapolis, Ind.
authors.forename: Robert S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Tepper
authors.affiliation: Dr. von Hauner Children's Hospital of the University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Erika R M
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: von Mutius
authors.affiliation: Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, and the David Hide Asthma and Allergy Research Centre, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: S Hasan
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Arshad
authors.affiliation: Washington University and St Louis Children's Hospital, St Louis, Mo.
authors.forename: Leonard B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Bacharier
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
authors.forename: Allan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.affiliation: Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology, Yale School of Public Health, School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Belanger
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bergström
authors.affiliation: Division of Immunology, Allergy and Rheumatology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio.
authors.forename: David I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Bernstein
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pediatrics, Epidemiology & Biostatistics, the University of California, San Francisco, Calif.
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Cabana
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn.
authors.forename: Kecia N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Carroll
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Mo.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Castro
authors.affiliation: Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, and Escuela de Biologia, Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador.
authors.forename: Philip J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School/Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, Mass.
authors.forename: Matthew W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Gillman
authors.affiliation: Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health, Boston, Mass.
authors.forename: Diane R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Gold
authors.affiliation: School of Social & Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Henderson
authors.affiliation: Helmholtz Zentrum, Muenchen, German Center for Environmental Health, Institute of Epidemiology I, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heinrich
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Childhood Asthma Atopy Center, Research Center for Standardization of Allergic Diseases, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Soo-Jong
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wis.
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.affiliation: Institute of Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, Charité-Universitaetsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, and Institute for Clinical Epidemiology and Biometry, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Keil
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Anita L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Kozyrskyj
authors.affiliation: Oslo University Hospital and University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Karin C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Lødrup Carlsen
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Columbia University, New York, NY.
authors.forename: Rachel L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Biostatistics, Paris Descartes University, Sorbonne, and Paris Municipal Department of Social Action, Childhood, and Health, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Momas
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.
authors.forename: Wayne J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Morgan
authors.affiliation: Division of Lung Diseases, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Noel
authors.affiliation: Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Ga.
authors.forename: Dennis R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Ownby
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) and IMIM (Hospital del Mar Research Institute) and CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Mariona
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pinart
authors.affiliation: Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio.
authors.forename: Patrick H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Ryan
authors.affiliation: Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.
authors.forename: Julie M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Schwaninger
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, AstraZeneca Chair in Respiratory Epidemiology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Malcolm R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Sears
authors.affiliation: Centre for Respiratory and Allergy, Institute of Inflammation and Repair, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, University of Manchester and University Hospital of South Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.affiliation: Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Henriette A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Smit
authors.affiliation: Arizona Respiratory Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.
authors.forename: Debra A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Stern
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Padmaja
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Subbarao
authors.affiliation: Division of Immunopathology, Department of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research, Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology and Immunology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Rudolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Valenta
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Md.
authors.forename: Xiaobin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Harvard Medical School, Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Mass.
authors.forename: Scott T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy and Immunology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Md.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.affiliation: Arizona Respiratory Center and the Department of Pediatrics, University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson, Ariz.
authors.forename: Anne L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics and Mindich Child Health & Development Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY.
authors.forename: Rosalind J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.affiliation: Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.
authors.forename: Alkis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Togias
authors.affiliation: Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Gergen
mesh_terms: D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D054555:National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U.S.); D054579:National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (U.S.); D010641:Phenotype; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States
keywords: Allergy; Mechanisms of the Development of Allergy (MeDALL); National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI); National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID); asthma; birth cohorts