← Go back

Date of filling in this questionnaire or last update: 22/07/2020
1. IDENTIFICATION & BASIC DESCRIPTION
Cohort name
  Porton Down Veterans Study
Country
 

  • United Kingdom
Name
  Nicola Fear
Institution
  King's College London
Email
  nicola.t.fear@kcl.ac.uk
Website
 

  • https://www.kcl.ac.uk/kcmhr/research/kcmhr/porton-down/porton-down
Name of committee
  REC, CAG
Or provide website
 

  • https://www.kcl.ac.uk/kcmhr/research/kcmhr/porton-down/porton-down
Contact Principal Investigator (name)
  Professor Nicola Fear
Data access policy (briefly describe)
  The data we hold is not publicly available due to legal and ethical restrictions. If you would like to find out more about opportunities for collaboration please contact the study lead nicola.t.fear@kcl.ac.uk
Participation in pooled analyses
 

  • The cohort is potentially interested in participating in pooled analyses of (European) occupational cohort studies (note pooled analyses also includes remote decentralized analyses that would not require any transfer of primary data as well as meta-analyses).
Main aim of cohort, please briefly describe the main objectives of the cohort
  To investigate the long-term mental and physical health of former servicemen who were exposed to chemical warfare agents as part of the ‘human volunteer programme’ at the UK government research establishment, Porton Down
Study design (please select as many as appropriate)
 

  • Retrospective cohort
Source population (please select as many as appropriate)
 

  • Industry / occupation-based
Comparators (please select as many as appropriate)
 

  • Internal study population
  • External study population (includes SMR/SIR studies)
Inclusion criteria
  Former service personnel who attended Porton Down between 1941 to 1989, and a comparison group who had adjacent service numbers but who did not attend Porton Down.
Enrollment
  Completed
Men at last follow-up
  35,876
Women at last follow-up
  231
Participation rate at enrollment (if known)
  94
Comments
  The study includes 18,276 former service personnel who participated in the human volunteer programme at the UK government research establishment, Porton Down from 01/04/1941 to 31/12/1989, and a comparison group of 17,600 similar service personnel with a neighbouring service number who did not visit Porton Down.
2. OUTCOME FOLLOW-UP
Type of data for outcome follow-up (please select as many as appropriate)
 

  • Death certificate
  • Use of registers (specify)
Specify: Use of registers
 

  • NHS Central Registry data on cancers and mortality, with future planned linkage to Hospital Episode Statistics data
First follow-up period (provide year)
  1941 to 2004
Last follow-up period (provide year)
  1941 to 2020
Number of follow-ups after baseline (provide number)
  2
3. OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURES
Source of exposure data collected (please select as many as appropriate)
 

  • Questionnaire, Personal (Occupational/industry modules)
  • Industry-based questionnaire
  • Other (specify)
Specify: Other
  Experiment books and military personnel files
Methods for exposure assessment (please select as many as appropriate)
 

  • Other (specify)
Specify: Other
  Data extraction from historical experiment books and personnel files
Main categories
 

  • Other chemicals
  • Other (specify)
Main categories | Other | Specify: Other
  Chemical warfare agents, riot control agents, preventative agents
Comments
  We extracted chemical exposure information from experiment books at Porton Down. See Keegan et al., 2007 for detail on exposures.
4. OUTCOMES EVALUATED
Baseline - type of outcome data collected (select more than one if applicable)
 

  • Registry-based
Registry-based
 

  • Cancer incidence
  • Mortality register
Follow-up - type of outcome data collected (select more than one if applicable)
 

  • Registry-based
Registry-based
 

  • Cancer incidence
  • Mortality register
Outcome type (please select as many as appropriate)
 

  • Mortality
  • Morbidity
Diagnostic groups based on ICD10
 

  • C + D Neoplasms
C + D Neoplasms
 

  • Benign neoplasm
  • Carcinoma in situ
  • Leukemia
  • Malignant neoplasms gastro intes. system including liver, gall bladder, pancreas
  • Malignant neoplasm lung
  • Mesothelioma
  • Other malignant neoplasm of respiratory and intrathoracic organs, heart, pleura
  • Malignant neoplasm of bone and articular cartilage
  • Melanoma and other malignant neoplasms of skin
  • Neoplasms connective and soft tissue including nerves
  • Malignant neoplasm of breast
  • Malignant neoplasms, females gynecological
  • Malignant neoplasms of male genital organs
  • Malignant neoplasm of urinary tract and kidney
  • Malignant neoplasms of eye, brain and other parts of central nervous system
  • Malignant neoplasms of thyroid and other endocrine glands
  • Malignant neoplasms of ill-defined, secondary and unspecified sites
  • Malignant neoplasm without specification of site including excl. leukemia
5. BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES & ANALYSIS
Comments
  None
6. Other Information
 

  • Demographics
  • Other (specify)
Specify: Other
  Military personnel infomation - units, rank, dischage dates etc.
Possibility for linkage to data registries/data enrichment via data linkage
 

  • Cancer incidence
  • Disease specific clinical database
  • Hospital discharge
  • Medication usage
  • Mortality register
Please describe plans that are funded or most likely to be funded
  We have funding for the current study, linking the cohort with NHSCR data on cancer incidence and mortality. We plan to apply for further funding for linkage with HES data to examine other morbidities, including cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and mental health problems.