Nurses’ Home Environment Sub-Study Fact Sheet
Study Title: Nurses’ Home Environment Sub-Study
Principal Investigator: Francine Laden, ScD
Contact information: nhs3@channing.harvard.edu
Purpose of this research
The purpose of this research is to collect air, water, and dust samples from your home, and personal chemical exposures from a wristband. These samples will eventually be analyzed to study how chemicals in your home and environment may affect your health.
Sponsor of this research
This research is funded by the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health.
Who takes part in this research and why
About 500 participants will take part in this research study. All subjects are also participants in the Nurses’ Health Study 3. Many participants may take part in this study because they think environmental health is an important topic of research. We couldn’t do this research without our participants.
Confidentiality and data security
The only foreseeable risk associated with this study is the unlikely and minimal risk of a breach of confidentiality. We believe risks are minimal given the protections in place to maintain confidentiality of information on the studies’ computing system. These protections include maintaining data in a secure, password-protected computing system, which is kept totally separate from the contact information of study participants. Participant names and contact information reside on a separate server. Participant data are identified by ID number only. Access to the data is provided through secure logins and granted on an as-needed basis per the Principal Investigator of the cohorts. The login can be deactivated by the IT team at any time. We have never experienced a breach in confidentiality.
Data sharing with other researchers
Your de-identified information may be used or shared with other researchers without your additional informed consent.
Data linkage with data from other studies
You may also be participating in a separate smartphone application sub-study, the Beiwe Smartphone Sub-study, which we previously contacted you about. The encrypted data from the app study will be received and stored by study investigators in our secure servers. You may also be participating in the Chronic Disease Biospecimen Collection. Data from the Beiwe Smartphone Sub-study, Chronic Disease Biospecimen Collection, Nurses’ Home Environment Sub-Study, and historical data from participation in NHS3 will all be linkable using participants’ data IDs for analyses.
Any risks associated with participation
The only foreseeable risk associated with this study is the unlikely and minimal risk of a breach of confidentiality. Protections are in place as described above. There may be sensitive questions related to anxiety, depression, financial loss, job security, and other mental health issues. Responding to these questions is completely voluntary, and you can skip questions for any reason.
Participation
Your participation is voluntary, and you can stop at any time. As always, not participating in a sub-study does not affect your status as a valuable member of the NHS3 main study. If you receive care at Mass General Brigham, deciding not to participate won’t affect medical care you receive at Mass General Brigham now or in the future, or any benefits you receive now or have a right to receive.
You will participate in this study for 7 days. Participation involves:
- Wearing a silicone wristband for 7 days to measure your exposure to chemicals in your daily life
- Running an indoor air pollution sampling device for 7 days
- Collecting tap water samples from your home
- Collecting two dust samples from your home
- Completing two questionnaires
- Use our prepaid label to send the kit back to our lab via FedEx
Contact information for questions
If you have questions about this sub-study, please contact us at nhs3@channing.harvard.edu
IRB contact information
If you would like to speak to someone not involved in this research about your rights as a research subject, or any concerns or complaints you may have about the research, contact the Mass General Brigham Human Research Committee at (857) 282-1900.
Privacy of Health Information
We are required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to protect the privacy of health information obtained for research. This is an abbreviated notice and does not describe all details of this requirement. During this study, identifiable information about you or your health will be collected and shared with the researchers conducting the research. In general, under federal law, identifiable health information is private. However, there are exceptions to this rule. In some cases, others may see your identifiable health information for purposes of research oversight, quality control, public health and safety, or law enforcement. We share your health information only when we must, and we ask anyone who receives it from us to protect your privacy.