Der Nutzen großer Kohortenstudien für die Gesundheitsforschung am Beispiel der Nationalen Kohorte

Abstract

The prospective nature of large-scale epidemiological multi-purpose cohort studies with long observation periods facilitates the search for complex causes of diseases, the analysis of the natural history of diseases and the identification of novel pre-clinical markers of disease. The German National Cohort (GNC) is a population-based, highly standardised and in-depth phenotyped cohort. It shall create the basis for new strategies for risk assessment and identification, early diagnosis and prevention of multifactorial diseases. The GNC is the largest population-based cohort study in Germany to date. In the year 2014 the examination of 200,000 women and men aged 20-69 years started in 18 study centers. The study facilitates the investigation of the etiology of chronic diseases in relation to lifestyle, genetic, socioeconomic, psychosocial and environmental factors. By this the GNC creates the basis for the development of methods for early diagnosis and prevention of these diseases. Cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative/-psychiatric diseases, musculoskeletal and infectious diseases are in focus of this study. Due to its mere size, the study could be characterized as a Big Data project. We deduce that this is not the case.

Good Practice Data Linkage (GPD): A Translation of the German Version

“…The research objectives and questions for research projects in which data linkage is foreseen must be precisely formulated since they provide the reference point for determining the specific requirements of different data sources. For this reason, it should first be shown whether there are only research objectives (e.g., in the German National Cohort (GNC) [11][12][13]) or if there are also specific research questions or hypotheses with deductive approaches involved (see GPS [7] and GEP [8]). [3,4]; Good Practice in Secondary Data Analysis (GPS) [7]; Guidelines and recommendations for ensuring good epidemiological practice (GEP) [8]; Status Quo Data Linkage [10]; STandardized Reporting Of Secondary data Analysis (STROSA) [14].…”

Gute Praxis Datenlinkage (GPD)

“…Daher sollte zunächst dargestellt werden, ob es nur Forschungsziele (wie z. B. bei der NAKO Gesundheitsstudie [7][8][9]) oder auch konkrete Forschungsfragen bzw. Hypothesen bei deduktiven Vorgehensweisen gibt (siehe GPS [1] und GEP [2]).…”

Die Biobank der Nationalen Kohorte als Ressource der epidemiologischen Forschung

“…Ausgehend von den Erfahrungen der laufenden Kohorten in Deutschland und in Abstimmung mit den genannten anderen Bevölkerungskohorten in Europa wurde das Konzept der Nationalen Kohorte (NAKO) entwickelt [8][9][10][11][12]. Zusätzlich werden die Studienteilnehmer alle 2-3 Jahre kontaktiert und gebeten, Kurzfragebögen auszufüllen, um Veränderungen im Lebensstil und anderen gesundheitsrelevanten Charakteristika und das Neuauftreten ausgewählter, wichtiger Erkrankungen zu erfassen ("aktives" Follow-up).…”