Cohort Profile: LifeLines, a three-generation cohort study and biobank

Abstract

The LifeLines Cohort Study is a large population-based cohort study and biobank that was established as a resource for research on complex interactions between environmental, phenotypic and genomic factors in the development of chronic diseases and healthy ageing. Between 2006 and 2013, inhabitants of the northern part of The Netherlands and their families were invited to participate, thereby contributing to a three-generation design. Participants visited one of the LifeLines research sites for a physical examination, including lung function, ECG and cognition tests, and completed extensive questionnaires. Baseline data were collected for 167 729 participants, aged from 6 months to 93 years. Follow-up visits are scheduled every 5 years, and in between participants receive follow-up questionnaires. Linkage is being established with medical registries and environmental data. LifeLines contains information on biochemistry, medical history, psychosocial characteristics, lifestyle and more. Genomic data are available including genome-wide genetic data of 15 638 participants. Fasting blood and 24-h urine samples are processed on the day of collection and stored at -80 °C in a fully automated storage facility. The aim of LifeLines is to be a resource for the national and international scientific community. Requests for data and biomaterials can be submitted to the LifeLines Research Office [LLscience@umcg.nl].

Road traffic noise, blood pressure and heart rate: Pooled analyses of harmonized data from 88,336 participants

“…Within BioSHaRE, tools were developed for data harmonization and federated data analyses (Doiron et al, 2013). Data were obtained from three European cohorts: LifeLines (the Netherlands) (Scholtens et al, 2014;Zijlema et al 2016), EPIC-Oxford (United Kingdom) (Davey et al, 2003), and HUNT3 (Norway) (Krokstad et al, 2013). LifeLines is a multidisciplinary prospective population based cohort study examining the health and healthrelated behaviors of persons living in the North East region of the Netherlands.…”

Missing heritability: is the gap closing? An analysis of 32 complex traits in the Lifelines Cohort Study

“…Details on the trait measurements, which were all based on either the physical examination or biomaterial collection at the baseline visit of Lifelines, have been described previously. 4 Ten principal components were added as covariates to correct for population stratification. The genome-wide significant SNPs from the literature were considered replicated in Lifelines if they showed a one-sided P-value o0.05 and the same direction of effect.…”

“…3, 4 The general aim of the Lifelines Cohort Study is to unravel how life-time exposure to environmental, and genetic risk factors and their interaction influences individual susceptibility to multifactorial diseases. Lifelines not only provides an indepth characterization of the biomedical, socio-demographic, behavioral, physical and psychological factors that contribute to health and disease in the general population, it also employs a broad disease-and organ-overriding phenotypic characterization of its participants allowing it to validly address questions concerning the multi-morbidity that occurs with ageing, rather than focusing on single-disease conditions.…”

The Lifelines Cohort Study: a data source available for studying informal caregivers’ experiences and the outcomes of informal caregiving

“…The cohort profile of Lifelines has been described elsewhere [16,17]. Briefly, Lifelines employs a broad range of investigative procedures to assess the biomedical, socio-demographic, behavioural, physical and psychological factors that contribute to the health and disease of the general population, with a special focus on multimorbidity and complex genetics [15,16].…”

“…The Lifelines Cohort Study is a large multi-disciplinary prospective population-based cohort study examining in a unique three-generation design the health and healthrelated behaviours of 167,729 persons living in the north of the Netherlands [15,16]. By covering the large heterogeneity and variety in the caregiving population, Lifelines ICAS enables the study of not only differences among but also common features across the wide range of informal caregivers, care recipients, and care situations.…”