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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

Between 1998 and 2002 the Survey team interviewed over 12,583 Southampton women aged 20 to 34 years. Those who became pregnant after interview were invited to take part in the pregnancy phase of the survey. Women received ultrasound scans at 11, 19 and 34 weeks of pregnancy, and their babies were measured soon after birth. There were 3,158 babies born to women in the study between 1998 and 2007. The survey has followed up these children with home visits at six months, one year, two and three years. A sample of over 1,000 children was seen at 4 years of age, more than 2,000 children at ages 6-7 years, and more than 1,000 at 8-9 years. Current follow-up of children at 11-13 years will continue for a number of years.

The aim is to learn more about the dietary,lifestyle, hormonal and omic factors that influence the health of women and their children.

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 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