Using Automated Data Quality Assessment Processes on the Japan Environment and Children's Study

Poster Presentation

Prepared by C. Katsikis1, S. Nakayama2, S. Denzer3
1 - LDC, Inc., 2701 Loker Ave. West, Suite 220, Carlsbad, CA, 92010, United States
2 - National Center for Japan Environment and Children's Study, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba 305-8506, , Japan
3 - LDS, Inc., 2701 Loker Ave. West, Suite 220, Carlsbad, CA, 92010, United States


Contact Information: ckatsikis@ldcfl.com; 561-512-9956


ABSTRACT

Amid growing concerns regarding the effects environmental pollution pose to children and the acknowledgement of the vulnerability of children to harmful substances in the environment, the G8 Environment Ministers agreed in 2009 to push the importance of children’s environmental health by cooperating in scientific research. Similar to research studies in the United States and in Europe, the Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS) is a nation-wide and government funded birth cohort study designed to monitor chemical substances to which children are exposed during the fetal stage or early childhood. Results from the JECS Study will be translated to better risk assessment and management to provide a healthy environment for future generations, therefore the JECS research group recognizes the importance of assessing data quality to ensure all results used in the study are suitable for decision making.

JECS has recruited over 101,000 expecting mothers since January 2011 and exposure to environmental factors will be assessed by chemical analyses of bio-specimens (blood, cord blood, urine, breast milk, and hair), household environment measurements, and computational simulations using monitoring data (e.g. ambient air quality monitoring) as well as questionnaires.

This poster presents how ADR.Net, an automated data review and data quality assessment application will be used to assess results from over 40,000 samples anticipated per year on the Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS). Automating the data verification, data review and data quality assessment processes is key to streamlining activities and establishing data consistency. Additionally, ADR.Net’s ability to review data from a variety of chemical analyses using targeted data quality objectives allows the JECS research group to customize the application in order to meet the needs of the study.