CCAAPS is an ongoing prospective birth cohort study. The study’s purpose is to determine whether infants who are exposed to DEP are at an increased risk for developing atopy and allergic respiratory diseases and to determine whether this effect is modified in a genetically at-risk population. The study methods, population, and sampling methodology are described in detail elsewhere (Hu et al. 2006 ; LeMasters et al. 2006 (link); Martuzevicius et al. 2004 ; Ryan et al. 2005 (link)). Briefly, eligible infants were identified from birth records, and the addresses obtained using these records were geocoded using EZLocate software (TeleAtlas Inc., Menlo Park, CA). Only those infants whose address was assigned the highest match code (TeleAtlas Inc. 2006 ) were included in this analysis. We computed the distance to the nearest road with > 1,000 trucks daily (“major road”) using the geoprocessing extension available for ArcView GIS 3.2 (Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc., Redlands, CA). Institutional review board approval was obtained before subject recruitment, and all enrolled parents gave written informed consent before their own and their infants’ study participation. Parents were recruited when infants were approximately 6 months of age and screened for allergy symptoms. Infants of atopic parents [confirmed with a skin prick test (SPT)] were enrolled. CCAAPS has continued prospectively evaluating enrolled infants with annual SPTs, physical examinations, questionnaires, and environmental exposure assessments, including exposure to house dust, mold, and environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) (Biagini et al. 2006 (link); Cho et al. 2006 (link); Osborne et al. 2006 (link)).
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