Study Events

Enrollment Phase

Telephone Interview

At the time of enrollment, participants completed a computer-assisted, interviewer-administered telephone questionnaire. Participants were asked to provide demographic, socioeconomic, health, occupation, and lifestyle information. As part of the structured interview, workers were also asked to provide detailed information about each response or clean-up job or task they performed, including work locations and start and stop dates. Interviews were conducted in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese. The interviews generally took 30 to 60 minutes, depending on the extent and duration of participants' clean-up experience. An abbreviated version of the questionnaire was administered to Vietnamese-speaking participants.

Home Visit

At the end of the telephone enrollment interview, participants residing in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and east Texas were invited to participate in a home visit. The home visit interview collected additional information on clean-up work performed and use of any personal protective equipment, additional health, lifestyle, occupational, residential and family health histories, and standardized scales for depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress. Clinical measurements and biospecimens were collected during the visit as well.

A subset of participants who completed a home visit provided additional blood samples (n = 1,061) during the home visit to be analyzed for the measurement of 46 different Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs), including BTEX, and metals. Additionally, 106 of these participants were asked to wear a personal environmental sampler to collect corresponding information on VOC's for cross comparisons with blood measures and comparison with external environmental data.

View Home Visit Procedures and Specimen Collection.

Follow-up

Telephone Interviews

We plan to follow GuLFSTUDY participants via telephone interview every two to three years. The follow-up telephone interviews will allow study investigators to ascertain any changes over time in health status, occupational exposures, lifestyle factors, and residence. The first follow-up interview began in May 2013 and ended in May 2016. A total of 19,142 English-speaking participants completed this first interview. An additional 2,114 participants who were lost to the initial follow-up effort completed an abbreviated questionnaire to provide updates on their health status. The second follow-up interview began in Fall 2017 and was completed in Fall 2021. More than 14,000 participants completed the second follow-up telephone interview.

A subset of participants was also followed longitudinally by telephone interview to help us better understand mental health trajectories in the wake of a disaster and the impact of interactions with medical and social services. The subgroup included participants with signs of potential mental health distress at the time of the home visit, as well as others without any apparent issues. These interviews were conducted at the time of first follow-up interview and again 6, 12, and 24 months later. The mental health telephone interviews began in September 2013 and concluded in August 2016. Among 6,458 participants initially selected, 2,859 of those participants (65%) completed the baseline mental health interview, and became eligible for subsequent mental health follow-ups. A total of 1,059 participants completed all four mental health waves.

Clinical Exam

Participants who completed a home visit and lived within 60 miles of study clinical sites in New Orleans, LA and Mobile, AL were eligible to take part in a clinical exam. Overall, 3,401 of the eligible participants completed exams between August 2014 and June 2016. The exam included health questionnaires, clinical measurements, and biospecimen collections. In addition to repeated components from the home visit, the exam included lung function tests, neurological and neurobehavioral measures, and more comprehensive mental health and substance abuse evaluations.

View Clinical Exam Procedures and Specimen Collection.