Albane: a survey to assess the state of health, chemical exposure and dietary habits of the French population

What is the goal of the Albane survey?

Albane (from the French acronym for food, biomonitoring, health, nutrition and the environment) aims to study the population's state of health, exposure to chemicals, diet and physical activity. Jointly conducted by ANSES and Santé Publique France, the survey is being co-funded by the Ministries of Health, Agriculture, the Environment and Labour. It intends to optimise and combine both agencies' resources, and pursue the goals of previous studies such as ANSES's Individual and National Study on Food Consumption (INCA) and Santé Publique France's Health Study on the Environment, Biomonitoring, Physical Activity and Nutrition (ESTEBAN). Albane will provide essential data for better understanding and protecting the health of the French population, and guiding public health and prevention policies in terms of the environment, food and nutrition.

Over what period will the survey run?

From September to December 2024: the first "pilot" phase will involve 400 people in the Île-de-France and Nouvelle-Aquitaine regions, more specifically in the départements of Gironde, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Seine-Saint-Denis, Seine-et-Marne and Val-d'Oise. The aim of this phase is to test the implementation and acceptability of the survey, and improve the protocol if necessary, with a view to launching the second phase nationwide in 2025.

From May 2025: the first survey cycle will be rolled out in mainland France, involving more than 3000 people, both children and adults. This will inaugurate the continuous collection of data organised in two-year cycles. Each cycle will cover the 13 regions of mainland France. The overseas territories will be included in the survey after the first two cycles. The participants will differ for each cycle, but some of the information gathered from one cycle to the next will be identical, enabling trends to be monitored at the French population level.

What are the objectives?

The Albane survey is designed to provide a more comprehensive view of the population's health. It will improve our understanding of:

• the frequency of certain illnesses such as diabetes, respiratory diseases, allergies and high blood pressure, which are often underdiagnosed;
• chronic disease indicators and nutritional status indicators and biomarkers, in order to assess the associated risks and risk factors;
• contamination of the French population by environmental chemicals such as pesticides, bisphenols, plasticisers (phthalates) and perfluorinated compounds (PFAS). This will be measured from biological samples. The aim will be to establish exposure reference values and compare these levels with previous studies conducted in France and abroad. Albane will therefore help establish the link between exposure to pollutants and levels of contamination in the French population;
• the population's dietary habits and levels of physical activity and sedentary behaviour. 

Who are the participants?

Each cycle of the Albane survey will include a sample of 1000 children aged 3 to 17 and 2000 adults between the ages of 18 and 79 years. They will be asked to complete several questionnaires and undergo a health examination (to measure clinical parameters and take biological samples). One hundred and fifty children from birth to 2 years of age will also participate in the survey during each cycle, but without undergoing the health examination.

How will participants be selected?

Survey areas have been defined in each of the 13 regions of mainland France in order to obtain a representative sample of the French population. Within each survey area, participants between the ages of 3 and 79 years will be selected at random from INSEE's demographic files on homes and individuals. In addition, a sample of children under 2 years of age living with the participants will be included in the survey.

How will the survey be organised for participants?

The survey will take place in three stages:

Stage 1: A researcher from Ipsos will visit participants' homes. The purpose of this first visit is to:

• present the survey and obtain participants' consent;
• collect information about the household, home, health, diet, etc.;
• provide the survey materials (urine collection container (from 3 years of age), equipment for measuring physical activity) and give instructions for the next stages.

Stage 2: Over a three-week period following the visit, participants will have to:

• describe their food intake on three randomly selected, non-consecutive days;
• answer questionnaires about their environment, dietary habits, health and physical activity;
• for some participants, measure their physical activity over a seven-day period using an accelerometer.

Stage 3: Health examination in a partner biomedical laboratory

Participants between the ages of 3 and 79 years will have to visit a partner biomedical laboratory to:

• measure their height, weight, muscle strength and blood pressure;
• complete a health questionnaire submitted by a nurse. This will cover any chronic illnesses, smoking habits, exposure to chemicals, etc.
• give a blood sample (from 6 years of age) and a hair sample (except during the pilot phase) and hand in the urine sample.

What will happen to the results of Albane's first cycle in 2025?

The first results, excluding biomonitoring, will be released from 2027. They may be published in several forms: reports for decision-makers or scientific papers.

As for the biomonitoring, the levels of exposure of the population to chemicals, as well as the determinants of these exposure levels, will be published from 2028. All data will be anonymised before publication.

What are the benefits of participating?

Participants will be contributing to an unprecedented initiative in France, which will help us better understand and protect the health of the French population and measure the effectiveness of public policies.

They will receive personalised information about their health: a summary of their food intake and some of the results of the various measurements taken during the health examination and the biological samples. If they wish, this information can be passed on to their general practitioner. To compensate them for travelling to the testing laboratory, participants will receive a cheque for €40.

How is data confidentiality ensured?

The Albane survey involves the processing of personal data for a task in the general public interest. Santé Publique France and ANSES are jointly responsible for this.

Santé Publique France and ANSES will ensure the security and confidentiality of participants' responses and measurements, from collection through to destruction, in order to protect their privacy. An information letter detailing how the data will be processed and participants' rights with regard to these data will be sent to all the people contacted prior to their participation.

The survey has been authorised by the French Data Protection Authority (CNIL).

Find out more

Visit the website for the Albane survey (in French)