German National Cohort study launches third phase
The Max Delbrück Center welcomes back participants in the German National Cohort (NAKO) study for re-examination at campus Buch.
The German National Cohort Study began re-examinations of study participants at the end of June. The Max Delbrück Center welcomed the very first study participant Sonja Lamer with a bouquet of flowers.
Since 2014, NAKO researchers have been collecting health data from 205,000 healthy volunteers to better understand how diseases develop. The health exams take place at 18 centers throughout Germany and include men and women between the ages of 20 and 69 at enrollment into the study. Every two to three years, participants are sent a questionnaire about their diet and lifestyle. Every four to five years, study participants are requested to return for another round of medical tests. This third phase of exams will begin this summer and continue until 2028.
It’s crucial that all participants return for their examination, regardless of their current health status, says Professor Tobias Pischon, head of the Molecular Epidemiology Lab at the Max Delbrück Center and a member of the NAKO board of directors. Some participants may seem to think that if they develop a disease, they can no longer be part of the cohort. “Quite the contrary,” says Pischon. “Such people are especially interesting to us because we can follow the continuum from health to disease.”
Understanding risk factors
By participating in the study, volunteers are contributing important information about health and disease. Such insight will prove essential in ensuring future health for generations to come.
Obesity, for example, is an established risk factor for many diseases. Follow up testing that includes MRI scans, measurements of hepatic fat content, and blood tests can help researchers find more precise risk factors that contribute to the development of diseases that result from obesity. More importantly, researchers hope that the study will yield clues on how to circumvent diseases before they develop.
“By participating in the study, volunteers are contributing important information about health and disease. Such insight will prove essential in ensuring future health for generations to come,” says Pischon.
The NAKO locations Berlin-Nord, Berlin-Mitte, Essen, Hanover, Leipzig, Neubrandenburg and Regensburg invite the participants of the NAKO Health Study to the study centers for the start of the third health examination. The study centers Augsburg, Berlin-South/Brandenburg, Bremen, Düsseldorf, Freiburg, Halle, Hamburg, Kiel, Mannheim, Münster and Saarbrücken will soon follow suit.
Text: Gunjan Sinha
