BackgroundWe present concept, study protocol and selected baseline data of the
Longitudinal Urban Cohort Ageing Study (LUCAS) in Germany. LUCAS is a
long-running cohort study of community-dwelling seniors complemented by
specific studies of geriatric patients or diseases. Aims were to (1)
Describe individual ageing trajectories in a metropolitan setting,
documenting changes in functional status, the onset of frailty, disability
and need of care; (2) Find determinants of healthy ageing; (3) Assess
long-term effects of specific health promotion interventions; (4) Produce
results for health care planning for fit, pre-frail, frail and disabled
elderly persons; (5) Set up a framework for embedded studies to investigate
various hypotheses in specific subgroups of elderly.Methods/DesignIn 2000, twenty-one general practitioners (GPs) were recruited in the Hamburg
metropolitan area; they generated lists of all their patients 60 years
and older. Persons not terminally ill, without daily need of assistance or
professional care were eligible. Of these, n = 3,326
(48 %) agreed to participate and completed a small (baseline) and an
extensive health questionnaire (wave 1). In 2007/2008, a re-recruitment took
place including 2,012 participants: 743 men, 1,269 women (647 deaths, 197
losses, 470 declined further participation). In 2009/2010
n = 1,627 returned the questionnaire (90 deaths, 47 losses, 248
declined further participation) resulting in a good participation rate over
ten years with limited and quantified dropouts. Presently, follow-up data
from 2007/2008 (wave 2) and 2009/2010 (wave 3) are available. Data wave 4 is
due in 2011/2012, and the project will be continued until 2013. Information
on survival and need of nursing care was collected continuously and
cross-checked against official records. We used Fisher’s exact test
and t-tests. The study served repeatedly to evaluate health promotion
interventions and concepts.DiscussionLUCAS shows that a cohort study of older persons is feasible and can maintain
a good participation rate over ten years, even when extensive self-reported
health data are collected repeatedly through self-filled questionnaires.
Evidently individual health developments of elderly persons can be tracked
quantifying simultaneously behaviour, co-morbidity, functional competence
and their changes. In future, we expect to generate results of significance
about the five study aims listed above.