TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hohmann, Cynthia
A1  - Pinart, Mariona
A1  - Tischer, Christina
A1  - Gehring, Ulrike
A1  - Heinrich, Joachim
A1  - Kull, Inger
A1  - Melén, Eric
A1  - Smit, Henriette A.
A1  - Torrent, Maties
A1  - Wijga, Alet H.
A1  - Wickman, Magnus
A1  - Bachert, Claus
A1  - Lødrup Carlsen, Karin C.
A1  - Carlsen, Kai-Håkon
A1  - Bindslev-Jensen, Carsten
A1  - Eller, Esben
A1  - Esplugues, Ana
A1  - Fantini, Maria Pia
A1  - Annesi-Maesano, Isabella
A1  - Momas, Isabelle
A1  - Porta, Daniela
A1  - Vassilaki, Maria
A1  - Waiblinger, Dagmar
A1  - Sunyer, Jordi
A1  - Antó, Josep M.
A1  - Bousquet, Jean
A1  - Keil, Thomas
T1  - The Development of the MeDALL Core Questionnaires for a Harmonized Follow-Up Assessment of Eleven European Birth Cohorts on Asthma and Allergies
JF  - International Archives of Allergy and Immunology
N2  - Background: Numerous birth cohorts have been initiated in the world over the past 30 years using heterogeneous methods to assess the incidence, course and risk factors of asthma and allergies. The aim of the present work is to provide the stepwise proceedings of the development and current version of the harmonized MeDALL-Core Questionnaire (MeDALL-CQ) used prospectively in 11 European birth cohorts. Methods: The harmonization of questions was accomplished in 4 steps: (i) collection of variables from 14 birth cohorts, (ii) consensus on questionnaire items, (iii) translation and back-translation of the harmonized English MeDALL-CQ into 8 other languages and (iv) implementation of the harmonized follow-up. Results: Three harmonized MeDALL-CQs (2 for parents of children aged 4-9 and 14-18, 1 for adolescents aged 14-18) were developed and used for a harmonized follow-up assessment of 11 European birth cohorts on asthma and allergies with over 13,000 children. Conclusions: The harmonized MeDALL follow-up produced more comparable data across different cohorts and countries in Europe and will offer the possibility to verify results of former cohort analyses. Thus, MeDALL can become the starting point to stringently plan, conduct and support future common asthma and allergy research initiatives in Europe.
KW  - harmonization
KW  - MeDALL
KW  - european birth cohorts
KW  - asthma
KW  - allergy
KW  - questionnaire assessment
Y1  - 2014
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-196594
SN  - 1018-2438
SN  - 1423-0097
VL  - 163
IS  - 3
ER  -