The way we work and our working conditions have a significant impact on health. To delve deeper into this relationship, the European consortium OMega-X has brought together various population and occupational cohorts. The objective is to analyze how work-related exposures affect different health outcomes.
A recent article in the International Journal of Epidemiology highlights OMega-X's potential as a resource for occupational health research. The consortium currently integrates 24 cohorts from eight European countries and multinational studies, with data from over 20 million participants. This initiative allows for the harmonization of information on work trajectories and occupational exposures to study their relationship with diseases and other health indicators.
GCAT's (Genomes for Life) participation contributes the perspective of a general population cohort from Catalonia, including information on participants' work trajectories. This will enable the correlation of this data with health information and other exposome dimensions, moving beyond the study of a single occupational exposure to analyze interactions with environmental factors, lifestyle habits, and social characteristics.
Rafael de Cid, GCAT's principal investigator and co-author of the study, emphasizes the importance of integrating occupational exposures into the global exposome study. "GCAT's value lies in our ability to study these exposures alongside environmental, social, and lifestyle factors, advancing towards a more integrated view of health determinants," he states.
Analyses within OMega-X have already addressed areas such as cancer, cardiometabolic, musculoskeletal, neurodegenerative, and respiratory diseases, as well as mental health disorders. Collaboration with other European cohorts will strengthen this line of research and enable the exploration of new questions regarding the relationship between work trajectories and health on a large scale.
