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KORA stands for “Kooperative Gesundheitsforschung in der Region Augsburg” (Cooperative Health Research in the Augsburg Region). KORA studies are conducted at regular intervals in order to assess the health status of the population in Augsburg and the surrounding area since 1984. The extensive database and biological specimen repository provide an excellent platform for national and international health research. More than 200 research projects a year are conducted with regional, national and international partners. To date, more than 2,000 publications have been issued. The main research areas are:
– Lifestyle and environmental factors as risk factors in the development of chronic diseases
– Identifying new genes for the most important chronic diseases and related risk factors
– Integrating research into risk factors and functional genomics
– Research on health systems: usage, costs and health status

Last Update 21/09/2017

General objectives of the NuAge Study:
1. To assess changes in dietary intakes of ageing men and women (foods, energy, macronutrients, micronutrients) and longterm exposure to functional foods from a qualitative and quantitative perspective;
2. To assess the influence of longstanding and current dietary habits and evolving food choices on changes in numerous markers of physical and cognitive status, functional autonomy and social functioning;
3. To assess the impact of age-related alterations in energy metabolism (utilisation and expenditure) and body composition, on changes in numerous markers of physical and cognitive status, functional autonomy and social functioning;
4. To assess the impact of individual (biological, psychological, health, functional, behavioural) and environmental determinants on dietary intakes.

The population is comprised of 1793 healthy men and women, selected from three age groups (68ﾖ72, 73ﾖ77, 78ﾖ82) at recruitment. A total of 82.4% of the population is French speaking participants and a total of 14.3% is English speaking participants.

Last Update 21/09/2017

The Swedish BioFINDER Study consists of four cohorts where patients are included prospectively and followed longitudinally (www.biofinder.se). At baseline, these individuals undergo detailed and standardized cognitive, neurological and psychiatric examinations. Plasma, blood, CSF and samples for cell biology studies are collected. Most also have also undergone advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and in many of the non-demented cases Amyloid and Tau positron emission tomography (PET) imaging have also been done.

The subcohorts include:
i) Healthy volunteers. Ca 350 volunteers aged 60-100 years old from the population-based Malm’ EPIC cohort (380 participants as of Feb 2016). Follow-up time: at least 8 years with investigations repeated every second year. In this cohort, appr. 20% is expected to have preclinical AD.
ii) Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD). Ca 500 patients with MCI/SCD aged 60-80 years. Follow-up time: at least 6 years with investigations repeated every year. In this cohort, appr. 50% is expected to have prodromal AD.
iii) Patients with different dementia disorders. We include ca 250 dementia cases aged 40-100 years with AD, VaD, DLB, PDD or FTD. Follow-up time: at least 2 years with investigations repeated every year.
IV) Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and PD-related disorders. Ca 300 patients with Parkinson-like symptoms. Follow-up time: at least 6 years with investigations repeated every year.

Last Update 21/09/2017

The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) is a longitudinal population cohort started in 1957, with a questionnaire administered to all Wisconsin High School seniors. In 1964, a randomly selected one-third of the members of the class of 1957 were followed up with a brief questionnaire to parents asking about their child’s post high-school education and occupation. Direct contact with the graduate began with a telephone interview in 1975, and subsequent telephone and mail surveys in 1993 2004. In 1977 a subset of graduate’s siblings were interviewed by phone and in 1995 and 2005 interviews were conducted with one sibling from each family whenever possible. Spouses of Graduates and Siblings who were married at the time of the 2004/2005 interview were also interviewed by phone. Most recently in-person interviews with a leave-behind questionnaire were administered in 2011 to both the graduate and sibling panels. Saliva was collected from both graduate and sibling participants via a mail-effort in 2008 and during the in-person 2011 interview.

Last Update 21/09/2017

The Sydney Centenarian Study is an ongoing project that has established a representative cohort of very elderly Australians. It has provided evidence that dementia is not inevitable at this age and that independent living is common. The data collected to date provides an excellent resource to explore the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to long life and successful cognitive aging. The study is ongoing and actively recruiting, with numerous publications in preparation.

Last Update 21/09/2017

In this epidemiological study we examined the prevalence of medical comorbidity in elderly subjects with cognitive deficits and dementia. The ReGAl Project (Rete Geriatrica Alzheimer- Geriatric Network on Alzheimer’s disease) collected data in 33 Italian Geriatric memory clinics from January 2001 to December 2005. A total of 4,075 patient were recruited.

Last Update 21/09/2017

Alberta’s Tomorrow Project (ATP) is a longitudinal study tracking the health of 55,000 adults aged 35-69 years in this western Canadian province. ATP was launched in 2000 as a prospective cohort research platform to study the relationship between environmental, lifestyle, and genetic factors and the incidence of cancer and chronic diseases.

In 2008, ATP joined a nation-wide research platform called the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project (CPTP) representing more than 300,000 participants from five provincial cohorts: Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces (Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia). Together, the consortium of five regional studies provides greater statistical power for research, as well as opportunities to examine geographical trends in health and wellbeing across Canada’s vast landscape.

The information contained herein is specific to the ATP cohort.

Last Update 21/09/2017

AWHS is a prospective, longitudinal cohort study based on the annual health exams of 5,688 workers of the General Motors Spain automobile assembly plant located in Figueruelas (Zaragoza, Spain). The study was designed to evaluate the trajectories of traditional and emergent cardiovascular diseases (CVD) risk factors (overweight, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, dietary habits or sedentary lifestyle), and their association with metabolic abnormalities and the prevalence and progression of subclinical atherosclerosis in a population of middle-aged men and women in Spain.

The specific aims of AWHS are:

1. To establish the research infrastructure required for a longitudinal cohort study, including setting up a biobank of repeated biological samples to conduct future assays in stored serum, plasma, whole blood, urine and DNA.

2. To identify new genetic, behavioural, and environmental determinants of the progression of adiposity and of the development of metabolic abnormalities and cardiovascular risk factors.

3. To characterize the prevalence and progression of subclinical CVD through non-invasive imaging techniques and their genetic, behavioural, and environmental determinants.

4. To interact with external investigators to promote the use of the study database and stored materials for ancillary studies and to disseminate the study findings to the scientific community, to public health authorities, and to the general public.

To collect data, factory workers undergo a standardized annual clinical exam, providing a clinical history, including clinical events and hospitalizations over the past year and current medication use, and undergo a physical exam, consisting of anthropometry (height, weight, and waist circumference), blood pressure measurements and heart rate, as well as laboratory assays, providing biological samples including serum, plasma, blood, urine and DNA. Data collection at the annual medical exams is conducted by the physicians and nurses of the Medical Services of General Motors Spain, who underwent training and standardization programs organized by the study investigators.

Each year, one random third of study participants 40 ﾖ55 years of age at baseline (n=2667) are selected for subclinical atherosclerosis imaging (Cardiac CT for Calcium Scoring, 2D ultrasound of carotid arteries, infrarenal aorta and femoral arteries), and for additional questionnaires of cardiovascular and lifestyle factors (dietary habits, sedentary, physical activity and sleep).

On September 2017, a substudy will begin with the aim of identifying early cognitive impairment in workers over 55 years of age, by using specific questionnaires and gene screening (Apo E).

Workers were excluded from the cohort if they have clinically overt CVD, or a major clinical condition limiting survival to <3 years at baseline. All laboratory procedures have been reviewed and improved to meet the ISO 9001:2008 standard, verified by an external audit.

Last Update 21/09/2017

The EADC-PET project (EAPP, The European Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium PET project) is a spontaneous multicentric study (ProtocolDraftSep2008; ProtocolDraftFeb2009) involving at the moment five Centres in four Countries (CENTRES), belonging to the EADC consortium. It was launched during the EADC meeting in Amsterdam, during fall 2007, by Flavio Nobili (Genoa) who is the Principal Investigator.

The project aims at sharing FDG-PET, MRI, neuropsychological, genetic, EEG and clinical information of patients with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) and matched healthy controls. Information is uploaded in a safe FTP facility on the server of University of Genoa. Username and password have been provided to all participants. Use of data is regulated by a ‘Confidentiality Disclosure Agreement’ that can be downloaded from this web site (Confidential_Disclosure_Agreement). The Centres propose original studies by sending a formal proposal to all participants who can agree or disagree, or propose modifications/suggestions to the original proposal.

The objective is to follow-up aMCI patients with clinical and neuropsychological examinations to pick up conversion to Alzheimer’s dementia or to other forms of dementia. FDG-PET can be analyzed by means of several post-processing strategies to highlight glucose metabolic information and to identify the characteristics of what is today called ‘prodromal’ AD.

Last Update 21/09/2017

The EVA study was a 9-year longitudinal study with 6 waves of follow-ups. During the two-year period 1991-1993 (EVA0), 1389 men and women born between 1922 and 1932 were recruited.

The aim is to investigate vascular ageing, decline in brain and cognitive function and associated factors with a longitudinal follow-up study. The secondary objective is to determine to role of biological factors linked with oxidative stress and brain ageing.
Inclusion criteria Subjects from both genders born between 1922 and 1932 (59 to 71 years old at enrolment), included in electoral registers in Nantes, can speak French and living in Nantes.

Last Update 21/09/2017