For the following projects, an application is currently pending or approved by the Ethics Committee Research of UZ Leuven.
Feasibility study on integrating human biomonitoring data into Intego
Study number S69573
Researchers: Pieter Jansen, Elly Den Hond, Katleen De Brouwere, Endale A. Alemayehu, Hamid Y. Hassen, Ilona Gabaret, Gijs Van Pottelbergh
In collaboration with the Department of Care of the Flemish government, VITO (Flemish Institute for Technological Research), and PIH (Provincial Institute for Hygiene), Intego is investigating the health effects of environmental pollutants. Currently, for example, there is a study on PFAS. Residents of Zwijndrecht who participated in the "human biomonitoring" study in the region in 2021 were given the option to send their PFAS blood results to their general practitioner. If you participated in this study and gave permission to send the data to your general practitioner, and your general practice is part of our Intego network, we can use your PFAS results to investigate whether high PFAS concentrations are linked to certain conditions (such as elevated liver values, cardiovascular problems, cholesterol, etc.). We do not have access to your personal medical record: the data we use cannot be traced back to a specific person. There is therefore no risk that your personal PFAS results or medical data will become known. Information about this project can be obtained by sending an email to Pieter Jansen at this address: pieter.jansen@kuleuven.be. As always, you can choose not to have your data used for Intego. You can contact your general practitioner for this.
Prevalence and severity of obesity-related comorbidities in Belgian general practice (PASOC-GP)
Study number: S69991
Researchers: Amar Daniël Emmanuel van Laar, Bart Van der Schueren, Pavlos Mamouris, Bert Vaes
This study looks at the Body Mass Index (BMI) and the presence of complications related to overweight in general practice. BMI is calculated based on height and body weight and is widely used to determine overweight. In this context, complications refer to conditions that often accompany overweight. This study specifically looks at five complications: hypertension (high blood pressure), dyslipidemia (elevated cholesterol or fats in the blood), type 2 diabetes (also known as 'diabetes'), prediabetes (a kind of early stage of diabetes, with a higher risk of developing diabetes later), and sleep apnea (short interruptions of breathing during sleep).
To determine the presence of these complications, information from the electronic patient record, blood measurements, and medication use is examined. This was done for this study using Intego data for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2020.
The data is used for an article in a scientific magazine, where the data is only presented at the group level. The reader of the article will see, among other things, what percentage of people in a certain group (classified based on BMI) live with these complications.
This research is important to gain more insight into the prevalence of complications (related to overweight) in the population (I), BMI registration by general practitioners (II), the relationship between a higher BMI and complications (III), and the differences in complications between groups (IV). Such information can help improve care.
If you have any questions about this research or how personal data is handled, you can contact us by sending an email to intego@kuleuven.be.