Towards a Swiss health study with human biomonitoring: Learnings from the pilot phase about participation and design.

Morand Bourqui, Réjane; Nusslé, Semira Gonseth; von Goetz, Natalie; Veys-Takeuchi, Caroline; Zuppinger, Claire; Boulez, Yoanne; Bühler, Nolwenn; Chapatte, Laurence; Currat, Christine; Dousse, Aline; Faivre, Vincent; Franco, Oscar H.; Virzi, Julien; Bourqui-Pittet, Martine; Bochud, Murielle (2023). Towards a Swiss health study with human biomonitoring: Learnings from the pilot phase about participation and design. PLoS ONE, 18(7), e0289181. Public Library of Science 10.1371/journal.pone.0289181

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BACKGROUND

A large-scale national cohort aiming at investigating the health status and determinants in the general population is essential for high-quality public health research and regulatory decision-making. We present the protocol and first results of the pilot phase to a Swiss national cohort aiming at establishing the study procedures, evaluating feasibility, and assessing participation and willingness to participate.

METHODS

The pilot phase 2020/21 included 3 components recruited via different channels: a population-based cross-sectional study targeting the adult population (20-69 years) of the Vaud and Bern cantons via personal invitation, a sub-study on selenium in a convenience sample of vegans and vegetarians via non-personal invitation in vegan/vegetarian networks, and a self-selected sample via news promotion (restricted protocol). Along with a participatory approach and participation, we tested the study procedures including online questionnaires, onsite health examination, food intake, physical activity assessments and biosample collection following high-quality standards.

RESULTS

The population-based study and the selenium sub-study had 638 (participation rate: 14%) and 109 participants, respectively, both with an over-representation of women. Of altogether 1349 recruited participants over 90% expressed interest in participating to a national health study, over 75% to contribute to medicine progress and help improving others' health, whereas about one third expressed concerns over data protection and data misuse.

CONCLUSIONS

Publicly accessible high-quality public health data and human biomonitoring samples were collected. There is high interest of the general population in taking part in a national cohort on health. Challenges reside in achieving a higher participation rate and external validity. For project management clear governance is key.

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