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The Prospective Epidemiological Risk Factor (PERF) Study is an ambidirectional population-based study of postmenopausal women set up with the purpose of obtaining a better understanding of the aetiology and pathogenesis of age-related diseases. Participants were recruited from a source population of 8875 women residing in Denmark. The baseline examination (PERF I) comprised 5855 women with mean age of 70.8 years (49.7-88.8) and took place between 1999 and 2001. All subjects have been followed up with registry linkage using population-based national registries. Further, a subcohort was re-invited to attend a follow-up visit between 2013 and 2014 (PERF II). Registry data are available for all baseline participants. From the baseline population, 2103 were enrolled in PERF II.

The Maastricht Study is an extensive phenotyping study that focuses on the etiology of type 2 diabetes, its classic complications (cardiovascular disease, nephropathy, neuropathy and retinopathy), and its emerging comorbidities, including cognitive decline, depression, and gastrointestinal, respiratory and musculoskeletal diseases. The study uses advanced state-of-the-art imaging techniques and extensive biobanking to determine health status in a population-based cohort of 10,000 individuals that is enriched with type 2 diabetes participants. The Maastricht Study is expected to become one of the most extensive phenotyping studies in both the general population and type 2 diabetes participants worldwide.

The Maastricht Study allows researchers access to data to encourage publications of high quality papers and presentations. External researchers (those without an MUMC or UM affiliation) can only submit a research proposal in cooperation with a member of the Maastricht Study Management Team and/or Maastricht Study Participating researchers.

UK Biobank is a major national health resource, and a registered charity in its own right, with the aim of improving the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of serious and life-threatening illnesses – including cancer, heart diseases, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, eye disorders, depression and forms of dementia.

500,000 people aged between 40-69 years were recruited in 2006-2010 from across the country to take part in this project. They have undergone measures, provided blood, urine and saliva samples for future analysis, detailed information about themselves and agreed to have their health followed. The cohort is primarily followed through data linkage but the cohort was re-contacted in 2012-13 with a further 100,000 to be approached over the next few years.

The Whitehall II Study was established in 1985 to investigate the importance of socioeconomic circumstances for health by following a cohort of working men and women aged 35-55 at enrolment. Participants have taken part in twelve data collection phases, seven of which have included a medical screening. The aim of the study is to understand the causes of age-related heterogeneity in health.

By combining the existing 30 years of data on social circumstances, risk factors and chronic disease with new clinical measures of cognitive function, mental disorders and physical functioning, Whitehall II has been transformed interdisciplinary study of ageing. In addition to providing insights into individual and social differences in the development of frailty, disability, dependence, and dementia, the study helps in the determination of optimal time windows and targets for interventions that maximise the potential for healthy-ageing and independent living.

The Moli-sani study (www.moli-sani.org) is a cohort study aiming at evaluating the risk factors (environmental, genetics, bio-molecular) linked to chronic-degenerative disease with particular regard to cancer, cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative disease.
The study has recruited, between March 2005 and April 2010, 24,325 people aged ³ 35 living in the Molise region, from city hall registries by a multistage sampling. Exclusion criteria were pregnancy at the time of recruitment, disturbances in understanding or willingness, current poly-traumas or coma, or refusal to sign the informed consent. Participation rate was 70%.
All subjects underwent electrocardiogram and spirometric tests aimed to evaluate pulmonary diffusion capacity, gas diffusion and pulmonary volumes through plethysmography.
The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition FFQ was used to determine daily nutritional intakes consumed in the past year.
A follow-up based on linkage with hospital discharge records (SDO) and mortality regional registry was performed at December 2011 with a median of 4.3 years and at December 2014 with a median of 9.6 years. Outcomes analysed at follow-up are: mortality for any and specific causes, hospitalization and hospital stay, coronary artery disease, stroke, atrial fibrillation, heart failure, diabetes, cancer.

The Health Survey for England series was designed to monitor trends in the nation’s health, to estimate the proportion of people in England who have specified health conditions, and to estimate the prevalence of risk factors associated with these conditions. The surveys provide regular information that cannot be obtained from other sources on a range of aspects concerning the public’s health. The surveys have been carried out since 1994 by the Joint Health Surveys Unit of NatCen Social Research and the Research Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL. Individuals are asked for written consent to link their HSE records to mortality and cancer registration data (from HSE 1994 onwards) and to Hospital Episodes Statistics (from HSE 2003 participants onwards).

Each survey in the series includes core questions and measurements (such as blood pressure, height and weight, and analysis of blood and saliva samples), as well as modules of questions on topics that vary from year to year. New topics in 2014 year included hearing and mental health. The achieved sample for the 2014 survey was 8,077 adults (aged 16 and over) and 2,003 children (aged 0-15).

The Costa Rican Longevity and Healthy Aging Study (CRELES) is a nationally representative longitudinal survey of health and lifecourse experiences of 2,827 Costa Ricans ages 60 and over in 2005. Baseline household interviews were conducted between November 2004 and September 2006, with 2-year follow-up interviews.

The main study objective was to determine the length and quality of life, and its contributing factors in the elderly of Costa Rica.
CRELES uses public data files containing information on a broad range of topics including self-reported physical health, psychological health, living conditions, health behaviours, health care utilization, social support, and socioeconomic status. Objective health indicators include anthropometrics, observed mobility, and biomarkers from fasting blood and overnight urine. Mortality events are tracked and conditions surrounding death are measured in a surviving family interview (longitudinal follow-up data are not yet publicly available).

The longitudinal Study of Cognitive Change in Normal Healthy Old Age (LSCC) is a population study including 6,342 healthy residence of Greater Manchester and Newcastle-upon-Tyne aged from 42 to 92 in 1983. Two different batteries of cognitive tests were alternately administered biennially with additional questionnaires and Dna sample collection until 2003. The aims of the study were to:

• to determine sources of variations in rates of cognitive change between individuals
• to identify factors that slow or accelerate cognitive ageing and that prolong mental productivity or accelerate decline
• to generate and test functional models for the processes of biological ageing, especially of ageing of the brain and the central nervous system
• to test whether the neurophysiological and consequent cognitive changes differ in idiosyncratic patterns between individuals

The LRRK2 Cohort Consortium (LCC) comprises three closed studies: the LRRK2 Cross-sectional Study, LRRK2 Longitudinal Study and the 23andMe Blood Collection Study. The LCC followed standardized data acquisition protocols, and clinical data and biological samples are stored in a comprehensive Parkinson’s database and biorepository, respectively. A total of 1,213 Idiopathic PD subjects, 1,168 PD subjects with genetic mutations in LRRK2, 1,123 unaffected subjects with genetic mutations in LRRK2, and 779 Healthy Controls (HC) were recruited.

The Parkinson’s Progression Marker Initiative (PPMI) is an observational, international study designed to establish biomarker defined cohorts and identify clinical, imaging, genetic and biospecimen Parkinson’s disease (PD) progression markers to accelerate disease modifying therapeutic trials. A total of 423 untreated PD, 196 Healthy Control (HC), 64 SWEDD (scans without evidence of dopaminergic deficit) subjects, and 65 Prodromal subjects (individuals with hyposmia or REM Sleep Behavior Disorder) were enrolled. PPMI is actively enrolling affected and unaffected individuals with genetic mutations in LRRK2, GBA, or SNCA through the end of 2018. For the most up to date enrollment numbers, please visit http://www.ppmi-info.org/study-design/study-cohorts/. To enroll PD subjects as early as possible following diagnosis, subjects were eligible with only asymmetric bradykinesia or tremor plus a dopamine transporter (DAT) binding deficit on SPECT imaging. Acquisition of data was standardized as detailed at www.ppmi-info.org.