We are carrying out research on the co-occurrence of Rheumatoid Arthritis or Ankylosing Spondylitis and allergic disease within first degree family members. In this scope it is very important to be able to collect information on the occurrence of allergic diagnoses in all first degree family members. Recruiting family members, however, shows to be very difficult in the Dutch community. This seems to be caused by a high percentage of broken families, and the absence of especially contact with fathers in this perspective.
Does anyone reading this have any experience in this type of family research and how can we best manage the lack of information of family members? Do we have to exclude participants we have no full allergic family history of?
This is a good idea for research, however my response to your concerns are:
1) Clear definition of the out-come of interest needs to be thoroughly well thought out.
2) Do not exclude people without family history of allergies since this may provide erroneous conclusion due to the problem of denominator of the proportions
3) Members present in a family can be contacted to provide information on any first degree relative who may not be at home and that person can be contacted for interview where ever he/she may be. This can be through telephone interview
interesting research.
I had never before considered the incidence of broken families might be a problem in The Netherlands. I alway thought that Dutch divorce rates were relatively low. I have some prior experience with locating family members through the Dutch municipal electronic database: „GBA” or „gemeentelijke basis administratie”. This however was not for the purpose of research but for family law/notarial matters.
Does you questionnaire have question about the period of having or being (exclusively) breastfed? Thymus gland of children who were never breastfed is half that of breastfed infants, there might be a connection. Also see RIVM om breastfeeding and AR: http://www.nationaalkompas.nl/gezondheidsdeterminanten/leefstijl/borstvoeding/wat-zijn-de-mogelijke-gezondheidsgevolgen-van-borstvoeding/
breastfeeding might be a confounding factor in you research
Dear Caroline Kruger
About the relative low Dutch divorse rates: It may be so that marriages of patients with chronic disease , because of the difficulties disease causes, are less stable than the marriages of others. this may be the cause of difficulties we experience. Something to be researched....
About the breastfeeding issue, we indeed collect information on breastfeeding in all participants because of it's known benefits.
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