Epidemiology, Surveillance, and Intervention Research
Westat serves as the coordinating and data management center for screening and treatment trials
and other epidemiologic studies. We have an array of experience in research that investigates environmental
exposures and other risk factors for disease.
- Westat's experience encompasses a broad range of morbidity and mortality studies to investigate
environmental exposures and other risk factors for disease. Since 1976, Westat has conducted more than 200 epidemiologic
studies, including descriptive, case-control, cohort, and intervention studies and screening and treatment
trials. Information collected includes data on the following:
- Cancer and other medical conditions;
- Occupational and residential history;
- Dietary and personal habits;
- Social, cultural, and demographic background; and
- Biomarkers, genetic assays, and other laboratory data.
Most studies have required the collection of biologic specimens, including blood, urine, buccal cells, tumor
tissue, and others. Many studies also include the collection of environmental samples, such as water, dust,
and air. These investigations have included research on cervical, esophageal, lung, stomach, kidney, breast, bladder, colon,
prostate, oral, biliary tract, testicular, and endometrial cancers.
- Westat serves as the coordinating and data management center for a major randomized trial of screening programs for
prostate, lung, colorectal, and ovarian cancers. Ten screening centers have enrolled approximately 155,000 men and
women. One-half of the participants receive cancer screening tests for 6 years; the other half receive usual care.
All participants are followed for 13 years during which we collect data from questionnaires, pathology
reports, and medical records.
- Westat is the coordinating and data management center for a 9-year, two-armed randomized clinical screening trial of
35,000 enrollees. The National Lung Screening Trial is designed to determine whether, in persons at elevated
risk of lung cancer, screening with spiral CT is associated with a greater reduction in lung cancer
mortality than screening with conventional chest x-ray. Westat works with NCI to perform the
following:
- Design and implement the protocol,
- Develop study procedures and materials,
- Train screening center staff,
- Process data, and
- Design and maintain a distributed study management system.
- Under contract to NCI, Westat served as the data and nutrition coordinating center for the Polyp Prevention
Trial, a randomized study of dietary intervention and the recurrence of adenomatous polyps. Our
staff performed the following major tasks:
- Trained and monitored clinical staff at the eight centers,
- Developed the nutrition intervention materials,
- Coordinated biospecimen analysis, and
- Performed long-term followup of the cohort for 5 years after the main trial.
- Westat is serving as the coordinating center for the National Children's Study (NCS) — the largest study ever undertaken within the United States to assess the effects of the environment on child and adult health. The full nationwide study will follow more than 100,000 children from prior to conception through adulthood, seeking information to prevent and treat such health problems as autism, birth defects, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. Westat will design the sample of households, which will lead to selecting women, finalizing protocols, managing data, compiling and analyzing statistics, and ensuring that the study proceeds according to design.
Six Vanguard Centers have been selected to pilot and complete the first phases of the study. The centers, which include a variety of universities, hospitals, health departments, and other organizations, will work within their communities to recruit participants, collect and process data, and pilot new research methods for incorporation into the full study.
NCS is led by a consortium of Federal agency partners: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (including the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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As the continuation of the Retrovirus Epidemiology Donor Study (REDS) begun in 1991, Westat is serving as the medical coordinating center
for REDS-II. This NHLBI study represents a major research commitment to study areas related to blood safety and availability.
As the REDS-II medical coordinating center, Westat works with six large blood centers and NHLBI to study the safety of the nation's blood supply
and ensure its availability. These studies examine the following:
- Trends in incidence and prevalence of retrovirus infection and infectious disease markers among volunteer donors,
- Transmission of viruses and other infectious agents to blood recipients,
- Issues of donor screening for behavioral risk factors and viral markers and assessment of deferral strategies, and
- Increasing blood product availability by evaluating recruitment and retention strategies and donor motivations.
- REDS-II has also initiated an international component aimed at improving global blood safety and availability. Westat is coordinating the
international studies that are being conducted in Brazil and China. We are responsible for overseeing all aspects of these research
efforts, ranging from protocol development, data collection and analysis, to dissemination of study findings.
- Westat has worked on disease surveillance at the national and international level for more than 20 years. Our expertise includes the following:
- Conceptualizing, designing, and implementing national disease surveillance systems;
- Selecting and training sentinel surveillance sites;
- Establishing clinical and epidemiologic case and outbreak definitionsand designing case report forms and surveillance reports;
- Managing surveillance data in real time and ensuring data quality; and
- Analyzing surveillance data to identify disease trends and outbreaks.
Visit Westat's International Health Research page for more in-depth coverage of our work in specific project areas in the international arena.
To learn more about Westat's experience with developing
information systems for health and medical studies, click here.
For more information about the Health and Medical Studies Research Area,
please send us a message.
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