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The Northern Finland Birth Cohort Studies is an epidemiological and longitudinal research program which aims to promote health and well-being of the population. The prospective data collected from the Northern Finland forms a unique resource, allowing to study the emergence of diseases which can be based on genetic, biological, social or behavioural risk factors.

NFBC includes two longitudinal and prospective birth cohorts of women and offspring collected at 20-year intervals from the same provinces of Oulu and Lapland: The NFBC1966 was set with an expected date of birth in 1966, comprising of 12,068 mothers and 12,231 children (prospective data collection from maternity cards since 16th gestational week on average), and the NFBC1986 with an expected date of birth between July, 1st 1985 and June, 30th 1986, comprising 9,362 mothers and 9,479 children (prospective data collection from 10th gestational week).

Last update – 02/05/2017

Disease follow-up for all the cohorts is conducted by active follow-up every 5 years and linkage to national disease and death registries.

The Singapore Health study is a nationally representative cross-sectional survey with the aim to estimate the prevalence of:

Health conditions of hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, diabetes, overweight and obesity, hearing loss and chronic kidney disease, mental wellbeing and to allow comparison of these data with the National Health Survey 2010;
Specific health behaviours; and
Participation in health screening for chronic diseases, cervical cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer

2,352 Singapore citizens and permanent residents of age 18 to 79 years old participated in the survey from August 2012 to March 2013. Overall response rate was 40%. 1956 of the participants also underwent physical examination, additional surveys and provided blood and urine samples for tests and storage.

Last update – 28/06/2017

The Sydney Memory and Ageing Study (Sydney MAS) began in 2005 to examine the clinical characteristics and prevalence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and related syndromes, and to determine the rate of change in cognitive function over time.

Non-demented community-dwelling individuals (N=1037) aged 70-90 were recruited from two areas of Sydney, following a random approach to 8,914 individuals on the electoral roll. They underwent detailed neuropsychiatric and medical assessments and donated a blood sample for clinical chemistry, proteomics and genomics. A knowledgeable informant was also interviewed. Structural MRI scans were performed on 554 individuals, and subgroups participated in studies of falls and balance, metabolic and inflammatory markers, functional MRI and prospective memory. The cohort is to be followed up with brief telephone reviews annually, and detailed assessments biannually.

Last update – 20/07/2017

In 2009, when it was launched, the Tempo cohort consisted of 1,103 people between the ages of 22 and 35 who had participated in a study on children and adolescents’ health between 1991 and 1999: “Les Enfants de Gazel”.

In 2011, Tempo cohort expanded to:

– include young people aged 18-25 years who have specific health situations and life situations
– increase the number of participants to study infrequent health problems.

In 2011 1,214 people were interviewed. In 2015, 783 people participated in the study and 533 participants returned a saliva collection kit. Saliva samples allow us to identify genetic markers that are associated with addictive behaviours (tobacco, alcohol and cannabis/CBD) in relation to characteristics of people’s lives.

In total 526 respondents responded at least three times, and 334 at least four times, giving us the opportunity to examine health trajectories over time.

Participants in the Tempo cohort were asked about their health, the situations they encountered in their daily lives, their work and family experiences.

Last update – 12/05/2017

The CONSTANCES general-purpose cohort is intended to serve as an epidemiological research infrastructure accessible to the epidemiologic research community with a focus on chronic diseases and aging. CONSTANCES is designed as a randomly selected representative sample of French adults aged 18-69 years at inception; 200,000 subjects will be included over a five-year period. At inclusion, the selected subjects are invited to complete questionnaires and to attend a Health Screening Clinic (HSC) for a comprehensive health examination. A biobank will be set up. The follow-up includes a yearly self-administered questionnaire, and a periodic visit to an HSC. Social and health data are collected from the French national databases. Data collected for participants include social and demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, life events, behaviors, and occupational factors. The health data cover a wide spectrum: self-reported health scales, reported prevalent and incident diseases, long-term chronic diseases and hospitalizations, sick-leaves, handicaps, limitations, disabilities and injuries, healthcare utilization and services provided, and causes of death. To take into account non-participation at inclusion and attrition throughout the longitudinal follow-up, a cohort of non-participants was set up and will be followed through the same national databases as participants.

Last update – 20/06/2017

The original GAZEL cohort was composed of 20,625 employees of the French national gas and electricity companies (15,011 male employees then aged 40 to 50 years and 5,614 women between 35 and 50 years old) at its inception in 1989.

Follow-up is continuous and includes data collection on health status, lifestyle, and socioeconomic and occupational factors from various sources. A postal questionnaire is sent to the participants each year, and data are extracted regularly from the files of the personnel and medical departments of EDF-GDF and from national registers. Participants were invited in 1999-2000, 2008 and 2011 to a health clinic where medical and biological data were collected.

The main focus of research in the past decade was devoted to the study of the persistent, long-term effects of occupational exposures after retirement; of the transition between professionally active life and retirement; and on determinants of early ageing. Accordingly, in addition to the health, behavioural and social data collected yearly since the beginning of the follow-up, new data were thus collected on cognitive complaints, cognitive and physical functioning, limitations in daily activities, time use and social relationships of retirees.

Last update – 20/06/2017

The Million Women Study is the largest study of women’s health in the world. In 1996-2001, a quarter of UK women then aged 50-64 years (1.3 million women) joined the study. The aim of the study is to provide reliable information on potentially modifiable causes of common and serious illnesses, to help improve individual and public health. Study participants have provided details about their lifestyle and health and given signed consent for follow-up. Since recruitment their health has been followed mainly through electronic linkage to routinely collected NHS records (only 1.5% loss to follow-up after 20 years) and the whole surviving cohort has been re-contacted 4 times by postal re-survey to update exposures (1999-03, 2006-7, 2009-12 & 2013-14). Subsets of women have completed additional postal and online re-surveys.

Million Women Study 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 – 13/06/2017

The original purpose of the Add Health study was to help understand the causes of adolescent health and health behaviour with special emphasis on the effects of multiple contexts of adolescent life.

The cohort was then followed through their transition to adulthood and research turned to understanding the determinants and consequences of developmental and health trajectories from adolescence into adulthood.

Add Health combines longitudinal survey data on respondents social, economic, psychological and physical well-being with contextual data on the family, neighbourhood, community, school, friendships, peer groups, and romantic relationships, providing unique opportunities to study how social environments and behaviours in adolescence are linked to health and achievement outcomes in young adulthood. The fourth wave of interviews expanded the collection of biological data in Add Health to understand the social, behavioural, and biological linkages in health trajectories as the Add Health cohort ages through adulthood, and the fifth wave of data collection continues this biological data expansion (2016-2018).

Last update – 03/02/2017

Aims & objective

To find out the known as well as some new factors which increase the risk of occurrence of stroke (half body paralysis, Lakwa) and of memory problem and other brain related problems.
To identify a group of apparently healthy people (50 years and above), carry out their health check up and follow them up over several years to detect any health problems (like heart attack, lakwa, memory problems) with increasing age.
To investigate the prevalence and incidence of and risk factors for stroke and cognitive decline in the elderly.

Updates about the health of the participants will be obtained from telephone follow-ups every six months and physical check-ups every three years. The study is expected to last for at least 10 years.

Last update – 02/02/2017

The AMPLE study has been set up to investigate differences and outcomes in those with Lewy body dementia with and without concurrent Alzheimer’s disease/pathology. The principle aim of AMPLE is to undertake amyloid PET imaging in Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) of 80 participants over the age of 60 and investigate the distribution of amyloid burden in LBD relative to AD and controls at baseline. A further aim is to determine the relationship between amyloid levels at baseline, clinical features of the disease, other imaging changes and subsequent clinical course in follow up.

Primary analysis would divide LBD patients into high and low amyloid burden with participants then compared on clinical features with AD-like symptoms and cognitive profiles. Follow up will be completed annually through surveys and clinical examinations.

Last update – 01/02/2017