Professor Dr Beate Ritz, member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German National Cohort (NAKO), spoke to us about her career as a scientist, her research and the role of the German National Cohort (NAKO) in epidemiology. Prof Dr Beate Ritz is an epidemiologist at the Environmental Health Department of the UCLA School of Public Health in Los Angeles (USA).
What motivated you to become a scientist?
I studied medicine, but I quickly realised after my final medical exams that I wasn’t suited to working in a hospital. In 1980, I became a member of the medical sociology working group at the University of Hamburg. Back then, we were still programming with mainframe computers and punch cards – those really were the early days of computing. Nevertheless, I found it much more exciting to collect and analyse data than to treat patients. I finished my medical degree and went straight on to do a doctorate in medical sociology. I really enjoyed that, but I quickly realised that I needed additional training in epidemiology to get a job in this field of research. That’s why I studied epidemiology in the USA. At the time, this was funded by the German Academic Exchange Service. From the moment I went to the USA, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
How did it come about that you became a member of the scientific advisory board of the German National Cohort (NAKO)?
I have previously worked for the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres. Over the years, I have kept in touch with some of the scientists from back then who were involved in the study from the early beginnings of the NAKO. In the end, I became a member of the scientific advisory board because I wanted to become more involved in Europe again. I am very pleased to be able to conduct research in Germany again through the NAKO.
How many epidemiological studies have you already worked on and is there one study that has been particularly important to you?
I have already been involved in 60-80 projects – this is because I am actively researching in several fields of work. I’ve studied the neurological effects of air pollution and pesticides, the links between cancer and environmental damage, and between cancer and workload, among other things. On some projects I have worked with the California Cancer Registry and Autism Registry. I have also been involved in cancer and autism studies in Denmark, where I led the largest Parkinson’s, Environmental and Genetics Study to date for several years. My research is very wide-ranging.
What means the most to me is a study on Parkinson’s and pesticides in California. This began in 2000 and I have been working on it for more than 22 years now. Fortunately, there is now a Parkinson’s registry in California, but I still remember how I travelled from hospital to hospital and doctor’s office to doctor’s office at the beginning of the study to recruit participants with Parkinson’s disease. One of the things we are investigating in the study is whether Parkinson’s begins in the gastrointestinal tract.
We have already achieved a lot: there have already been around 100 publications and the study is now one of the longest-running epidemiological Parkinson’s studies worldwide.
If you spend a lifetime researching something and building up resources, you need an heir to take it over. I expect to retire in six to seven years and I am glad that there is a young colleague who will probably take over the management of the study.
What are the differences between the German National Cohort (NAKO) and other cohort studies?
Most long-term studies only examine a specific group of people, such as nurses in the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study. The NAKO, however, examines a very broad population group: the participants belong to different age groups, genders, and the whole thing takes place nationwide, geographically comprehensive. This diversity makes the NAKO Health Study unique. Above all, it is the fact that in a country as large as Germany, one study can cover the whole of society that makes the NAKO so special.
What do you expect from the German National Cohort (NAKO)?
Of course, you always hope that something will improve in your own field of research: I hope that age-related diseases will be understood differently and that the influence of environmental and working conditions will be included more in research. That’s why I think it’s great that the German National Cohort (NAKO) takes long-term changes in the participants’ living conditions into account. This opens up an incredible number of opportunities for research.
What role will epidemiology play in the future?
I hope it will play a major role.
Studies such as the German National Cohort (NAKO) create a structure that researchers can access easily if, for example, there is another pandemic. People can then be contacted immediately, data retrieved and analysed.
Epidemiologists play a very important role in cohort studies because epidemiologists understand very well what data needs to be collected and how, how to avoid bias, i.e. distortions that can arise in this study design, from the outset, how to analyse studies accordingly, etc. Epidemiologists must be familiar with diseases, but also with human behaviour, social and political dynamics and environmental factors. Epidemiology is very wide-ranging and can be applied in many different ways, and the coronavirus pandemic has also shown, for example, that epidemiologists don’t always have to agree with each other. I hope that awareness of the importance and usefulness of epidemiology in politics and society will become even stronger in the future.