TY - JOUR
T1 - The LifeCycle Project-EU Child Cohort Network
T2 - a federated analysis infrastructure and harmonized data of more than 250,000 children and parents
AU - Jaddoe, Vincent W. V.
AU - Felix, Janine F.
AU - Andersen, Anne-Marie Nybo
AU - Charles, Marie-Aline
AU - Chatzi, Leda
AU - Corpeleijn, Eva
AU - Donner, Nina
AU - Elhakeem, Ahmed
AU - Eriksson, Johan G.
AU - Foong, Rachel
AU - Grote, Veit
AU - Haakma, Sido
AU - Hanson, Mark
AU - Harris, Jennifer R.
AU - Heude, Barbara
AU - Huang, Rae-Chi
AU - Inskip, Hazel
AU - Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta
AU - Koletzko, Berthold
AU - Lawlor, Deborah A.
AU - Lindeboom, Maarten
AU - McEachan, Rosemary R. C.
AU - Mikkola, Tuija M.
AU - Nader, Johanna L. T.
AU - de Moira, Angela Pinot
AU - Pizzi, Costanza
AU - Richiardi, Lorenzo
AU - Sebert, Sylvain
AU - Schwalber, Ameli
AU - Sunyer, Jordi
AU - Swertz, Morris A.
AU - Vafeiadi, Marina
AU - Vrijheid, Martine
AU - Wright, John
AU - Duijts, Liesbeth
AU - Strandberg-Larsen, Katrine
AU - Vinther, Johan Lerbech
AU - LifeCycle Project Grp
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Early life is an important window of opportunity to improve health across the full lifecycle. An accumulating body of evidence suggests that exposure to adverse stressors during early life leads to developmental adaptations, which subsequently affect disease risk in later life. Also, geographical, socio-economic, and ethnic differences are related to health inequalities from early life onwards. To address these important public health challenges, many European pregnancy and childhood cohorts have been established over the last 30 years. The enormous wealth of data of these cohorts has led to important new biological insights and important impact for health from early life onwards. The impact of these cohorts and their data could be further increased by combining data from different cohorts. Combining data will lead to the possibility of identifying smaller effect estimates, and the opportunity to better identify risk groups and risk factors leading to disease across the lifecycle across countries. Also, it enables research on better causal understanding and modelling of life course health trajectories. The EU Child Cohort Network, established by the Horizon2020-funded LifeCycle Project, brings together nineteen pregnancy and childhood cohorts, together including more than 250,000 children and their parents. A large set of variables has been harmonised and standardized across these cohorts. The harmonized data are kept within each institution and can be accessed by external researchers through a shared federated data analysis platform using the R-based platform DataSHIELD, which takes relevant national and international data regulations into account. The EU Child Cohort Network has an open character. All protocols for data harmonization and setting up the data analysis platform are available online. The EU Child Cohort Network creates great opportunities for researchers to use data from different cohorts, during and beyond the LifeCycle Project duration. It also provides a novel model for collaborative research in large research infrastructures with individual-level data. The LifeCycle Project will translate results from research using the EU Child Cohort Network into recommendations for targeted prevention strategies to improve health trajectories for current and future generations by optimizing their earliest phases of life.
AB - Early life is an important window of opportunity to improve health across the full lifecycle. An accumulating body of evidence suggests that exposure to adverse stressors during early life leads to developmental adaptations, which subsequently affect disease risk in later life. Also, geographical, socio-economic, and ethnic differences are related to health inequalities from early life onwards. To address these important public health challenges, many European pregnancy and childhood cohorts have been established over the last 30 years. The enormous wealth of data of these cohorts has led to important new biological insights and important impact for health from early life onwards. The impact of these cohorts and their data could be further increased by combining data from different cohorts. Combining data will lead to the possibility of identifying smaller effect estimates, and the opportunity to better identify risk groups and risk factors leading to disease across the lifecycle across countries. Also, it enables research on better causal understanding and modelling of life course health trajectories. The EU Child Cohort Network, established by the Horizon2020-funded LifeCycle Project, brings together nineteen pregnancy and childhood cohorts, together including more than 250,000 children and their parents. A large set of variables has been harmonised and standardized across these cohorts. The harmonized data are kept within each institution and can be accessed by external researchers through a shared federated data analysis platform using the R-based platform DataSHIELD, which takes relevant national and international data regulations into account. The EU Child Cohort Network has an open character. All protocols for data harmonization and setting up the data analysis platform are available online. The EU Child Cohort Network creates great opportunities for researchers to use data from different cohorts, during and beyond the LifeCycle Project duration. It also provides a novel model for collaborative research in large research infrastructures with individual-level data. The LifeCycle Project will translate results from research using the EU Child Cohort Network into recommendations for targeted prevention strategies to improve health trajectories for current and future generations by optimizing their earliest phases of life.
KW - Consortium
KW - Birth cohorts
KW - Exposome
KW - Life course
KW - Non-communicable diseases
KW - FOLIC-ACID SUPPLEMENTS
KW - DNA METHYLATION
KW - BLOOD-PRESSURE
KW - BIRTH-WEIGHT
KW - EARLY NUTRITION
KW - GENERATION R
KW - RISK-FACTORS
KW - PREGNANCY
KW - PROFILE
KW - ASSOCIATION
U2 - 10.1007/s10654-020-00662-z
DO - 10.1007/s10654-020-00662-z
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 32705500
VL - 35
SP - 709
EP - 724
JO - European Journal of Epidemiology
JF - European Journal of Epidemiology
SN - 0393-2990
ER -