2014 · The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · paywalled
Continuity and innovation in the data collection protocols of the second Wave of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project
Jaszczak et al.
The finding, in our words
A US survey of 3,400 adults aged 62 to 90 collected up to 15 biomeasures at home, including saliva, dried blood spots and urine, with Salivette and Oragene among the devices used, which shows that several patient-centric sampling methods can run together in home-based research.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
This review establishes that microsampling across blood, saliva, urine and stool matrices offers validated workflows and regulatory recognition for human biomonitoring comparable to conventional methods. It finds that these decentralised approaches enhance participant acceptability and enable screening in remote or low-resource settings.
In a study of 46 perinatal nicotine users, dried blood spots and saliva were used weekly to measure reproductive hormones, finding that lower postpartum estradiol and greater peripartum declines in oxytocin were associated with increased nicotine craving and use. This demonstrates the feasibility of decentralised microsampling and remote surveys for longitudinal hormone tracking in vulnerable populations.
This study of 184 individuals showed that home collection of dried blood spots and saliva can identify genetic polymorphisms linked to cardiac serum markers. Seven SNPs associated significantly with markers such as Apo B, LDL Direct, and hsCRP, while a polygenic risk score correlated strongly with NT-proBNP (r²=0.82, P=.03) and ox-LDL (r²=0.94, P=.005). These results indicate decentralised genetic sampling could enable early cardiovascular risk assessment and identify patients requiring closer serological monitoring.
Acutely concussed youth studied at home showed longer sleep latency and greater fatigue than controls, with altered overnight cortisol dynamics and lower bedtime melatonin; these home-based saliva and actigraphy measures highlight decentralised endpoints for acute concussion care.
The study found that self-collection of dried blood spots and other samples using at-home kits was a useful and cost-effective method for screening a large cohort for sexually transmitted infections outside a clinic. This demonstrates the feasibility of decentralised, patient-centric sampling for population-level infectious disease surveillance.