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The first wave of the MIDUS study collected survey data from a total of 7,108 participants. The baseline sample was comprised of individuals from four subsamples:

a national RDD (random digit dialing) sample (n=3,487);
oversamples from five metropolitan areas in the U.S. (n=757)
siblings of individuals from the RDD sample (n=950); and (4) a national RDD sample of twin pairs (n=1,914).

All eligible participants were non-institutionalized, English-speaking adults in the coterminous United States, aged 25 to 74. Data from the above samples were collected primarily in 1995/96.

Last update – 03/02/2017

The Three-City Study (3C Study) is a population-based longitudinal study of the relation between vascular diseases and dementia in persons aged 65 years and older. A total of 9,294 participants (3,649 men and 5,645 women) were recruited from three French cities: Bordeaux (2,104), Dijon (4,931) and Montpellier (2,259).

The principal objective is to estimate the risk of dementia (Alzheimer’s disease and other types) that may be attributed to vascular factors.

In follow up 1 and 2 (2001-2004) participants were interviewed and subjected to physical and cognitive testing. In follow up 3 (2005-2012) participants completed a postal questionnaire. The third, fourth, and fith waves of follow-up examinations started in 2006 and finished in 2012. A sixth follow-up is ongoing.

Last update – 03/02/2017

There are over 800,000 people with dementia in the UK today, and this figure is set to double in the next 30 years. Dementia has a huge impact on a person’s life and is one of society’s most urgent health and social care challenges. Despite this, treatment for dementia is very limited and there is no cure.

Human tissue is vital for dementia research but is currently in short supply and is not covered in standard organ donation schemes. With the support of Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK, Brains for Dementia Research was set up in 2007 to establish a network of brain bank facilities across England and Wales.

It is now a ‘gold standard’ for brain tissue banking, linking six leading centres (based in London, Oxford, Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester and Cardiff) in a network of common standards, best practice and cooperation. This lays the foundation to enable the highest quality dementia research, which aims to find a cure for dementia. In each bank, people with mild cognitive impairment or a diagnosis of dementia, and healthy participants, are supported to donate their brain by specialist research nurses.

This initiative is unique from other brain banks, as the memory, thinking and behaviour of each prospective donor are monitored throughout their later life through regular assessments. This provides researchers with a complete medical history to accompany the donated brain tissue, allowing them to see how brain changes correlate with symptoms.

Last update – 09/05/2018

The British Regional Heart Study (BRHS) is a prospective study in middle-aged men drawn from general practices in 24 British towns, 7,735 men were recruited in 1978-1980. It was set up to determine the factors responsible for the considerable variation in coronary heart disease, hypertension and stroke in Great Britain. It also seeks to determine the causes of these conditions in order to provide a rational basis for recommendations towards their prevention.

Following the collection of baseline date in 1978-80 the cohort has been followed up through the participants, two-yearly GP Record Reviews, and the Office of Population and Census Surveys. Participants have been re-contacted through questionnaires or assessment in 1983-85, 1992, 1996, 1998-2000, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2010-2012, 2014, 2015, 2016.

Last update – 21/02/2017

GENDER is a study of unlike-sex twin pairs born between 1906 and 1925 (Gold et al., 2002). A survey concerning health and health behavior was mailed in 1994 with responses from 1,210 twins from 605 pairs where both responded. Mean age at baseline questionnaire assessment was 74.43 (SD 4.28) and all are Caucasians. A baseline in-person evaluation of 498 twins from 249 pairs between 70 and 80 years of age was undertaken between 1995 and 1997, and included an interview and tests of cognitive and physical functioning. Two additional in-person waves followed at 4-year intervals. Finally, a second survey was mailed in 2007 to all living twins who participated in the first mailed survey.

Last update – 04/03/2017

The PATH Through Life project is a 20 year longitudinal cohort study of 7,485 young (aged 20-24 at baseline), midlife (aged 40-44 at baseline) and older (aged 60-64 at baseline) adults randomly sampled from the electoral roll of the Australian Capital Territory and the nearby city of Queanbeyan.
The original aims of the project are outlined below.

To delineate the course of depression, anxiety, substance use and cognitive ability with increasing age across the adult life span.
To identify environmental risk, genetic risk and protective factors influencing individual differences in the course of these characteristics.
To investigate interrelationships over time between the three domains of: depression and anxiety, substance use, and cognitive ability and dementia.
Data collection has occurred at four intervals (4 waves), at approximately four year intervals with a good participant retention rate. The fifth wave of data collection is commencing in 2017.
Several design features of the PATH project contribute to its unique standing among population based longitudinal cohort studies.
Obtaining measures of genetic, biological (including MRI), psychosocial and lifestyle risk and protective factors for mental health and wellbeing.
Use of a narrow age cohort design with longitudinal follow ups as an optimal means of separating age and cohort effects.
Assessment of participants across the full adult lifespan, permitting investigation of developmentally significant, but under studied periods such as midlife
Recruitment and follow up of a young-old population, providing important pre-clinical data for studying the development of age related changes in memory and cognition.

Last update – 12/01/2017

The PREVENT Research Programme has established a cohort of individuals to explore differences in the brain and cognitive function in healthy people in mid-life (aged 40-59). People are grouped into high, mid and low risk based on their family history and APOE status (a well-known risk gene for Alzheimer’s disease).

650 participants are assessed on biological indicators including markers in blood, saliva, urine and spinal fluid as well as direct imaging of the brain’s structure and function. Changes in all of these markers will be monitored at 2 years to work out if risks that predict these changes. One of the main aims of the study is to identify the earliest signs of changes in the brain whilst people are still in good health.

Last update – 13/12/2017

The major goals of this prospective cohort study of a randomly selected community sample are to: establish the prevalence and genetic, metabolic and environmental determinants of psychiatric disorders, cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in the general population of the city of Lausanne; assess the mechanisms of the association between psychiatric disorders and CVRF / CVD.
Additional scientific questions focus on:

the identification of risk factors for the incidence and course of CVRF and psychiatric disorders;
the identification of risk factors for cognitive impairment;
the testing of novel biological marker candidates and the incidence or course of CVRF/CVD or psychiatric disorders;
the testing of associations between brain anatomy patterns and CVRF and psychiatric disorders.

Last update: 19/12/2016

The Thai Cohort Study was established in 2005 in order to study the dynamics, drivers and impacts of the population transition from high maternal and child mortality and infectious disease to low mortality and chronic disease. We call this the ‘health-risk transition’ – synchronised change in causal risks and health outcomes affecting whole populations, with Thailand being a good example in the SE Asia region. This transition can be divided into overlapping or interacting component transitions such as the nutrition transition, the health system transition, sexual transition, the transport transition, the (formal) work transition and the environment transition (including urbanisation). As our understanding improves we are better able to inform governments about changing health service demands and changing prevention needs — with universal
health insurance and Thai obesity research being two prominent examples of national response.

Cohort members are distance-learning students who resided nationwide and were enrolled at the Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University when they responded to a 20-page baseline questionnaire in 2005 (n= 87,151). A four and eight year follow-up were conducted with a response rate of approximately 70% at each follow-up (n=60,569 in 2009 and n=42,785 in 2013). At 2005 baseline, median age was 29 years, roughly half the sample were females, and approximately half were urban residents.

For mortality data linkage, all cohort members have provided their Citizen ID number which was matched with death records from the Thai Ministry of Interior and subsequently linked with causes of death from the Ministry of Public Health. Up until November 2016, there were a total of 1,401 deaths among the Thai Cohort Study participants.

Last update: 22/01/2017

Based at the University of Bristol, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), also known as Children of the 90s, is a world-leading birth cohort study. Between April 1991 and December 1992 more than 14,000 pregnant women were recruited into the study and these women (some of whom had two pregnancies or multiple births during the recruitment period), the children arising from the pregnancy, and their partners have been followed up over two decades.

The cohort has been followed intensively with annual questionnaires for the mothers, fathers and the children from age 5. A 10% sample of children were seen 10 times between 4 and 61 months for clinic assessment. Annual clinic assessment of the whole cohort was conducted from the age of 7 to 13 and 15 to 17. Assessment at age 24/25 is currently planned.

Record linkage has been completed for Education, Hospital Episode Statistics, Clinical Practice Research Datalink and Death notification and cancer cases.

1 million biological samples are held including maternal blood and urine, umbilical cord blood, placentas, paternal blood and saliva and childrens blood, saliva and urine.

The study has been extended to include grandparents, siblings, and children of the children and recruitment is underway.

ALSPAC is part of CLOSER (Cohort & Longitudinal Studies Enhancement Resources) which aims to maximise the use, value and impact of the UK’s longitudinal studies.

Last update: 12/01/2017