Purpose: The exposome is a conceptual framework of all exposures encountered by an individual in his or her lifetime. Studying the exposome is thereby a monumental feat that may require extensive research, conceptualization, and proof-of-concept analyses. Researchers have begun studying the exposome by developing exposome- and environment-wide association studies (EWAS). Since EWAS is such a novel technique, this critical analysis of existing EWAS in the literature sought to determine whether the studies utilized common research methods, how the data were analyzed, and whether the analyses were similar. The analysis also sought to explore ways in which these studies could inform study of the exposome.
Methods: The ProQuest Environmental Science Collection was queried for articles conducting exposome-wide association studies and environment-wide association studies. Only research articles were accepted for further analysis. These articles were examined following epidemiological study critical analysis guidelines.
Results: Five research articles were returned through literature review. Methods analysis determined that the studies conducted similar regression analyses of extensive exposure variables with a single health outcome as the dependent variable. One study utilized an animal model and primarily studied metabolites, thereby supporting the concept that metabolomics may play a supporting role in study of the exposome. All studies utilized validation procedures and examined results using a false discovery rate.
Conclusions: The EWAS articles examined in this critical analysis conducted extensive validation procedures to successfully demonstrate the statistical significance of large-scale linear and logistic regression. These procedures will likely make EWAS a valuable resource in future exposome studies
