Archives

The Coronary Artery Risk Development in (Young) Adults (CARDIA) Study was initiated in 1984 by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to assist in providing a better understanding of the
trends and determinants of coronary heart disease (CHD) in the United States (US). The study began by focusing on young adults ? persons 18 to 30 years of age at the time of the Year 0 (Y0) baseline
screening, undertaken between March 1985 and June 1986. A random selection of 5,115 black and white men and women identified by each of the four CARDIA field centres constituted the cohort.

Follow?up examinations at Y2, Y5, Y7, Y10, Y15, Y20, and Y25 achieved high retention, collected a rich set of high quality data and stored specimens bearing on the risk factors and possible causes of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

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

The ADC was setup in 2004 by including all patients who come to the Alzheimer Center for diagnostic work up and who consent to give all data, collected as part of the routine diagnostic work up, for research. The aim is and was to facilitate research into new and existing biomarkers in the broadest sense, to establish diagnostic, prognostic and theragnostic values and further insight into the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative dementias. The data are collected on a weekly basis and consist of baseline data and annual follow up data. Since it is conception it has grown into one of the largest clinical databases in the dementia field. More info on setup, characteristics and data collection can be found in van der Flier WM, Pijnenburg YA, Prins N, Lemstra AW, Bouwman FH, Teunissen CE, van Berckel BN, Stam CJ, Barkhof F, Visser PJ, van Egmond E, Scheltens P.

Optimizing patient care and research: the Amsterdam Dementia Cohort. J Alzheimers Dis. 2014;41(1):313-27. doi: 10.3233/JAD-132306. PubMed PMID: 24614907.

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 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

The aim of GS: SFHS is to establish a large, family-based intensively-phenotyped cohort recruited from the general population across Scotland, as a resource for studying the genetics of health areas of current and projected public health importance. It aims to identify genetic variants accounting for variation in levels of quantitative traits underlying the major common complex diseases (such as cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, mental illness) in Scotland.

Baseline data was collected at a single clinic visit. Longitudinal data is available by linkage to NHS medical records. Some participants are being invited to new clinic visits in 2015-17. This profile also includes scanning information from the Stratifying Resilience and Depression Longitudinally (STRADL) study to which approximately 1500 GS participants are being invited for scanning.

Last Update 21/09/2017

All people aged 65-84 listed in the population registers of the 12 Italian participating towns as resident and alive on the 31.12.2002. The community based random sample was stratified by gender and 5-year age classes following an equal allocation strategy.

The general objective of IPREA-FU is to improve the evidence base on the preclinical phase of dementia, providing a better insight into its heterogeneous evolution.

Last Update 21/09/2017

The Lc65+ project is a longitudinal population-based study focusing on the development of frailty after the age of 65. The main methods in the Lc65+ study are:

ﾕ long term observation of subjects, beginning at 65 to 70 years, an age when frailty is still unusual, in order to study its initiation and development;
ﾕ prospective data collection on a large range of health dimensions, including psycho-social characteristics, in order to investigate the temporal sequence linking frailty, its risk factors, modulators, and outcomes:
ﾕ a population approach considering frailty as a central parameter of health in ageing populations that is useful not only for surveillance, but also for the evaluation of preventive interventions.

Follow-up is based on a yearly questionnaire sent by mail to the participant’s home. In addition, subjects are invited to the study center every three years for an interview and examination similar to those performed at baseline. The follow-up is unlimited in time and is not interrupted in the case of nursing home admission.

Last Update 21/09/2017