Epidemiology of IPF, Incidence, Prevalence and Mortality: Use of Capture Recapture Methods Advance Research (Capture/ReCapture)

PI(s): Daniel Kass, University of Pittsburgh; Faina Linkov, Duquesne University; Rebecca Bascom, Penn State University

Project Summary: Our first goal is to determine the incidence, prevalence, and mortality from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in Allegheny County, PA using capture-recapture method and to examine the following hypotheses:

1. There are no gender differences in the incidence of IPF
2. There is no temporal variation of IPF

Second, using Simmons Registry (N=1150), we seek to establish the pilot study on the contribution of various risk factors to IPF morbidity, mortality, and acute deterioration.

1. We hypothesize that patients can be grouped into sub-categories by (a) clinical manifestations; (b) occupational histories; (c) risk factors
2. We hypothesize that with these sub-categories we will be able to identify predictors of different trajectories of disease progression
3. We also hypothesize that we will be able to determine factors associated with short survival (1 year) in comparison to long survival (4+ years) and set the stage for many other population-based studies of risk factors.

Sponsor: Multiple industry partners