QALIBRA - Introduction
Helga Gunnlaugsdóttir (Co-ordinator)
Matis, Reykjavík, Iceland
BRAFO Kick off meeting 11-12.02.2008
“Quality of life – integrated benefit-risk assessment”
Partners:
• Matis (IS, coordinator)
• Central Science Laboratory (UK)
• RIVM (NL)
• Wageningen University (NL)
• University of Patras (GR)
• Altagra (HU)
• IPIMAR (PT)
• Website: www.qalibra.eu
Integrating health risks and benefits
• Dietary recommendations need
to take account of both positive
and negative health effects
• To do this quantitatively:
– Model all relevant health effects
– Convert to common measure of
impact (e.g. DALY or QALY)
– Integrate to estimate net impact
– Take account of variability and
uncertainty
Net health impact
Risks
Benefits
QA-LIBRA
Quality of life balance
BRAFO Kick off meeting 11-12.02.2008
QALIBRA scientific objectives
• Develop a suite of quantitative methods for assessing
and integrating food risks & benefits
• Make them available to stakeholders as web-enabled
software
• Develop effective strategies for risk/benefit
communication
• Validate through comprehensive case studies on oily
fish and functional foods
BRAFO Kick off meeting 11-12.02.2008
Timeline
•
•
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Start April 1st 2006
End September 30th 2009
Ongoing for 22 months
BRAFO Kick off meeting 11-12.02.2008
Deliverables
•
36 deliverables altogether (3,5 years)
Main deliverables at the end of the project:
•
New approaches for assessing, integrating and
communicating food risks & benefits
•
Implementation of methods as web-based
software
•
Workshop to train end-users and test/refine the
software
•
Scientific papers
BRAFO Kick off meeting 11-12.02.2008
Problem formulation
CASE STUDY 1a – oily fish
•
Focus on oily fish (e.g. salmon, trout, herring etc.)
–
Ignore all other foods including non-oily fish
•
Simplified analysis of one adverse and one beneficial effect
(selected arbitrarily for illustration)
•
Focus on UK adult population, age group 19-64
•
Assess different consumption scenarios:
•
–
Reference scenario: current consumption
–
“Recommended” consumption: 1 portion oily fish/week
Net health impact estimated in DALYs
BRAFO Kick off meeting 11-12.02.2008
Methods and Approaches
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•
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New approaches for quantifying variation and
uncertainty in net health impacts, including
Bayesian modelling and Monte Carlo simulation
Specialised approach to software design and
testing to ensure usability of web-based tool
Social science approaches including focus
groups and Delphi studies on the communication
of risk-benefit information
BRAFO Kick off meeting 11-12.02.2008
Case studies
•
•
Case study 1: oily fish
•
1A – Preliminary study: one food, one beneficial
effect, one adverse effect, one population
•
1B – Detailed study: most important (fish) foods,
multiple effects, multiple populations
Case study 2: phytosterol enriched foods
BRAFO Kick off meeting 11-12.02.2008
Quality of data
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Literature search of published literature in PubMed etc
•
Criteria of the WHO are used to evaluate the quality of the
studies and the consistency of the evidence
•
The classifying criteria are:
– convincing evidence,
– probable evidence,
– possible evidence,
–
insufficient evidence.
BRAFO Kick off meeting 11-12.02.2008
Results already achieved
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Case study 1A: on oily fish
–
–
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•
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Preliminary study: one food, one beneficial effect, one adverse
effect, one population.
Was essentially a feasibility analysis of conceptual framework for
integrating benefits and risks – not a definitive analysis
Version 1 of system (QALIBRA-tool) with functions for
basic operations
Version 4 of general framework
Report on 1st focus group study, on communication
of risk-benefit analysis outputs
Cluster activities with Beneris (e.g. Meetings &
workshops, sharing of methodologies & ideas)
BRAFO Kick off meeting 11-12.02.2008
Expected impact
Strategic impact:
•
Contribute to solving important types of societal
problems by developing methodologies and tools that
provide better information on the overall health impacts
of different foods & effective communication strategies
for risk-benefit information
Innovation activities:
•
Innovative methodologies and tools for assessing and
communicating risk-benefit information on foods
Exploitation:
•
Web-based software for all stakeholders (different
access/functions for different stakeholder groups)
BRAFO Kick off meeting 11-12.02.2008
Potential synergies with BRAFO
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Additional case studies in BRAFO i.e. fish (as in
QALIBRA and BENERIS) as well as soy, folic acid,
macronutrient replacement.
•
Beneficial and complementary if BRAFO would include
a special focus on developing an efficient tiered
assessment process and specific approaches for
lower-tier approaches to risk-benefit assessment
BRAFO Kick off meeting 11-12.02.2008
SWOT analysis for QALIBRA
Strength:
•
Co-operation between leading institutions in Europe with complementary
expertise in risk and benefit assessment methodologies, uncertainty
analysis, risk communication etc
Weakness:
•
Several aspects of the project are complex & challenging
Opportunities:
•
Quantitative methods and web-based tool for assessing and integrating
food risks & benefits
Threats:
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Dissemination and uptake of complex systems can be threat to the
QALiBRA outcome in the long run
BRAFO Kick off meeting 11-12.02.2008