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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 children’s 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

BePaiD (Behaviour and Pain in Dementia) is a longitudinal cohort study of 230 people with dementia, aged over 70, admitted to hospital for acute medical illness, and assessed for BPSD and pain at admission and every 4 (+1) days until discharge. Other measures included length of stay, care quality indicators, adverse events and mortality.

The aim of the study is to define the prevalence of behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) and explore their clinical associations, particularly with pain, BPSD encompasses a range of symptoms including agitation, aggression, delusions, hallucinations, depression and apathy.

Last update: 16/01/2017

The Busselton Healthy Ageing Study aims to enhance understanding of ageing by relating the clustering and interactions of common chronic conditions in adults to function. Phase I (recruitment) is a cross-sectional community-based prospective cohort study involving 5,107 ‘Baby Boomers’ (born from 1946 to 1964) living in the Busselton Shire, Western Australia. The study protocol involves a detailed, self-administered health and risk factor questionnaire and a range of physical assessments including body composition and bone density measurements, cardiovascular profiling (blood pressure, ECG and brachial pulse wave velocity), retinal photography, tonometry, auto-refraction, spirometry and bronchodilator responsiveness, skin allergy prick tests, sleep apnoea screening, tympanometry and audiometry, grip strength, mobility, balance and leg extensor strength. Cognitive function and reserve, semantic memory, and pre-morbid intelligence are assessed. Phase 2 (longitudinal, 6 year follow-up) commenced in 2016.

Last update: 25/01/2017

The Cambridge City over-75s Cohort Study (CC75C) is a long-term follow-up study of a representative population-based sample of older people which started in 1985 from a survey of over 2,600 men and women aged 75 and above. Through a series of interviews and assessments spanning almost three decades they have contributed to one of the largest and longest-running longitudinal observational studies of ageing into older old age.
The initial study targeted all men and women aged 75 or older who were registered within a selection of geographically and socially representative general practices in Cambridge, and achieved a 95% response rate in six of the seven practices. From this original survey of 2610 people, 2166 individuals form the baseline sample for the longitudinal cohort. This group has been followed up through ten surveys, with sub-groups assessed more often. Similarly high response rates amongst participants still alive in their late 80s or 90s, and even amongst centenarians, have built an extensive resource of quantitative and qualitative data contributed by a representative sample of very old people and their relatives.
The focus in later years shifted to quality of life issues of ‘older old’ people near the end of life for which we have been interviewing relatives or carers of surviving members of the cohort all aged 95 or more, as well as these study participants themselves.

Last update: 05/01//2017

MRC CFAS study started in the late 1980s with the initial aim of investigating dementia and cognitive decline in a representative sample of more than 18,000 people aged over 65 years. To date there have been in the region of 48,000 interviews with participants in the study. The range of information collected has also allowed the study to investigate depression and physical disability in the older population and also look at healthy active life expectancy. Following baseline interviews, subsets of the cohort have been contacted for 1, 2, 6 and 8 year follow up and the whole sample were contacted for a 10 year follow up. There have also been in excess of 580 donations of participant’s brains after death.

CFAS is part of the Dementias Platform UK (DPUK), a multi-million pound public-private partnership to accelerate progress in dementias research http://www.mrc.ac.uk/research/facilities/dementias-platform-uk/

There is a sister study CFAS II which builds on the design and infrastructure of MRC CFAS. It has provided data on generational and geographical differences including people in institutions. CFAS I is the original three sites (Cambridge, Newcastle and Nottingham) from MRC CFAS which are used as a comparitor for CFAS II.

Last update: 13/01/2017

CFAS II based in England and Wales started in 2008, and builds on the design and infrastructure of original CFAS. It has provided data on generational and geographical differences including people in institutions. It will also provide important base-line information on older people aged 65-84 in 2007-2008 who will reach the age of greatest frailty during the 2020s when the peak in the number of people aged 85 or over is expected and at a time when major therapeutic interventions for dementia could be expected to have an effect. Participants were followed up by interview throughout 2010-2011.

CFAS II is part of the Dementias Platform UK (DPUK), a multi-million pound public-private partnership to accelerate progress in dementias research http://www.mrc.ac.uk/research/facilities/dementias-platform-uk/

Last update: 13/01/2017

The Norfolk component of the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer (EPIC) recruited over 30,000 people from 1993 to 2000. EPIC-Norfolk participants are men and women who were aged between 40 and 79 when they joined the study and who lived in Norwich and the surrounding towns and rural areas. They have been contributing information about their diet, lifestyle and health through questionnaires and health checks over two decades.

Following baseline data collection the cohort has been followed up at 18 months by questionnaire, 3 years (1997-2000) – second health check and questionnaire, 10 years – health questionnaire , 13 years (2006-2011) – third Health examination and questionnaire.

The primary aim of the ten country half a million international EPIC collaboration is to examine the relationships between diet and incident cancers; that is, cancers which have developed after they joined the study. This broadened to include lifestyle and genetic factors and other diseases

A secondary aim is to study the relationship between dietary intake and other diseases and disease risk factors. In EPIC-Norfolk, these include heart attacks and strokes, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, thyroid disease, osteoporosis, dementia, eye diseases and many others. We are also studying the link between disease and other factors, such as psychosocial health.

EPIC Norfolk is part of the Dementias Platform UK (DPUK), a multi-million pound public-private partnership to accelerate progress in dementias research.

Last update: 07/12/2017

The Hertfordshire Cohort Study comprises a nationally unique study of 3000 men and women born during the period 1931-1939 and still resident in the English county of Hertfordshire. Information available on these individuals includes birthweight (recorded by the attending midwife), weight at age one year (recorded by a health visitor), the method of infant feeding, and details of childhood illnesses up to age five years. Follow-up of individuals began in 1990 and medical and social histories have been ascertained, as well as detailed anthropometry, blood pressure, glucose tolerance, fasting serum cholesterol and triglycerides, bone density and physical performance. DNA on all participants has been collected and is stored in the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, UK.

The entire cohort is being followed up through primary care and hospital records for clinical outcomes including incident coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, chronic airflow obstruction and fracture. The cohort members are flagged with NHS Digital for notification of deaths.

HCS 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: 31/01/2017

The University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is a longitudinal panel study that surveys a representative sample of approximately 20,000 people in the United States.

Last update: 21/01/2017