Archives

The Health 2000 Survey, carried out in 2000-2001 in Finland, was coordinated by the National Institute for Health and Welfare, THL (the former National Public Health Institute) in co-operation with an extensive network of organizations and experts. The aim of the survey was to provide information on major public health problems, their causes and treatment, health service needs and utilization as well as functional and working capacity. The data for the survey were collected in comprehensive health examination including blood sampling, in interviews and in self-administered questionnaires. The nationally representative sample included 8,028 persons aged 30 or over of whom 85% participated in the health examination conducted at 80 areas in the mainland Finland. In addition, 1,894 young adults (18-29 years) were invited to the health interview and fill in the questionnaire. Further, 1,278 people who had taken part in Mini-Finland Health Survey carried out in 1978-1980 were invited to the re-examination.

The follow-up of the Health 2000 Survey, the Health 2011 Survey, was carried out in 2011-2012. All members of the Health 2000 sample (n=8,135), who were living in Finland in 2011 and had not refused requests to be invited to further studies, were invited to the Health 2011 Survey. In 2011, they were at least 29 years of age. A total of 59% of them participated in the health examination conducted at 59 areas in Finland. In addition, a new random sample of young adults (aged 18-28, n=1,994) was taken. A total of 415 of them were invited to the health examination and the rest of them (1,579) received only the postal questionnaire. Further, 920 people who had previously taken part in the Mini-Finland Health Survey and invited to re-examination in 2001 were invited.

The Health 2000/2011 cohort is also continuously followed-up by linkage to Finnish nationwide registers.

STROKOG is a consortium of longitudinal studies of cognitive disorders following stroke, TIA or small vessel disease. Developed under the auspices of VASCOG (Society for the Study of Vascular Cognitive and Behavioural Disorders), it is the first international effort to harmonise work on post-stroke dementia and is being led by CHeBA researchers.

The consortium brings together studies that have examined post-stroke or other high vascular risk cohorts longitudinally, with cognitive decline and dementia (including sub-types) as primary outcome variables. The included studies (N=27; total sample of more than 10,000 individuals, representing 17 countries) have rich neuropsychological and MRI data, and some recent studies (n=3) have included amyloid imaging in sub-samples. A number of studies have CSF and/or plasma available for biomarker studies, and participant enrolment in brain banks for neuropathology.

Last Update 21/09/2017

The EADC-PET project (EAPP, The European Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium PET project) is a spontaneous multicentric study (ProtocolDraftSep2008; ProtocolDraftFeb2009) involving at the moment five Centres in four Countries (CENTRES), belonging to the EADC consortium. It was launched during the EADC meeting in Amsterdam, during fall 2007, by Flavio Nobili (Genoa) who is the Principal Investigator.

The project aims at sharing FDG-PET, MRI, neuropsychological, genetic, EEG and clinical information of patients with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) and matched healthy controls. Information is uploaded in a safe FTP facility on the server of University of Genoa. Username and password have been provided to all participants. Use of data is regulated by a ‘Confidentiality Disclosure Agreement’ that can be downloaded from this web site (Confidential_Disclosure_Agreement). The Centres propose original studies by sending a formal proposal to all participants who can agree or disagree, or propose modifications/suggestions to the original proposal.

The objective is to follow-up aMCI patients with clinical and neuropsychological examinations to pick up conversion to Alzheimer’s dementia or to other forms of dementia. FDG-PET can be analyzed by means of several post-processing strategies to highlight glucose metabolic information and to identify the characteristics of what is today called ‘prodromal’ AD.

Last Update 21/09/2017

This is the largest multi-centre study of ageing in men in the world and intends to identify the nature and frequency of some of the symptoms of ageing in men, the relationships between these symptoms to hormonal changes and other risk factors.

In total, 3369 men in 8 different countries in Europe are taking part in the study. These 8 centres are Manchester – UK, Malmo – Sweden, Tartu – Estonia, Lodz – Poland, Szeged – Hungary, Florence – Italy, Santiago de Compostela – Spain, Leuven – Belgium. In each centre, ~400 men aged between 40 and 79 years at the start of the study have been recruited. They will be followed up to look for future changes in their hormonal and general health status. The men will be investigated initially on two occasions, at the start and then ~5 years later. It is highly likely that the study will continue beyond 5 years and further testing will be organised subsequently. The aims of the study are to:

Document geographical variations in the ageing-related involution decline of endocrine function in European men;
Explain the variability in the rate of secular decline in endocrine functions on the basis of socio-demographic, lifestyle, co-morbid, ethnic/racial, or genetic factors;
Predict the physical and psychological health status of individuals based on the variation in ageing-related endocrine decline and changes in body composition.

Last update – 24/04/2017

The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) is a prospective cohort with more than 521,000 study participants enrolled from 23 centres in 10 western European countries. Detailed information on diet, lifestyle characteristics, anthropometric measurements, and medical history was collected at recruitment (1992-1999).

Biological samples including plasma, serum, leukocytes, and erythrocytes were also collected at baseline from 387,889 individuals and are stored at the International Agency for Research on Cancer – World Health Organization (IARC-WHO) and mirrored at EPIC collaborating centres. Overall, the EPIC biorepositories host more than 9 million aliquots, constituting one of the largest biobanks in the world for biochemical and genetic investigations on cancer and other chronic diseases. Follow-up measures of lifestyle exposures have been collected and will be centralized at IARC in 2016.

Last update – 25/04/2017