Current Participant Activities

Cohort-wide Health Follow-up

In 2019, we began contacting all AHS participants to collect information on changes in health and farming status. Active follow-up ends in late 2021, though surveys may be returned through Jan 31, 2022.

Special Studies

The AHS encourages researchers to conduct special/add-on studies on specific topics that are important to agricultural populations, such as recent studies focused on lung health or risk of Parkinson’s disease. We hope you will agree to participate if you are asked to be a part of one of these special studies.

Studies that are currently active:

Pesticides and Sense of Smell (PASS) Study
Loss of sense of smell is common with aging, especially in patients with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. AHS participants who reported a high pesticide exposure event, such as getting a large amount of pesticides on their skin, were more likely to report a loss of sense of smell 20 years later. To follow-up on this finding, starting in 2019, AHS collaborators from Michigan State University and Duke University contacted selected participants to complete a health and farming survey and a “scratch-and-sniff” test to evaluate their sense of smell in the first phase of this study. The second phase with a smaller group of participants will be starting in 2021.

Confirmation of Self-reported Health Conditions
We periodically reach out to participants who report health conditions that are of special interest to our research team because of the possibility that farm factors may influence the chances of developing the condition. In the past we contacted participants who reported specific autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, and Parkinson’s disease to obtain additional information about diagnosis and treatment of these conditions.