Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Apr 28;17(9):3071.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17093071.

An Inventory of European Birth Cohorts

Claudia Pansieri  1 , Chiara Pandolfini  1 , Antonio Clavenna  1 , Imti Choonara  2 , Maurizio Bonati  1
Affiliations

An Inventory of European Birth Cohorts

Claudia Pansieri et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Many birth cohorts have been carried out. We performed a review of European birth cohorts to see the countries involved, provide a panorama of the current research topics and design, and, more generally, provide input for those creating collaborations and laying out guidelines aimed at unifying cohort methodologies to enable data merging and maximize knowledge acquisition. We searched PubMed and Embase for articles referring to longitudinal, prospective European birth cohorts and searched online cohort inventories. We found references to 111 birth cohorts, 45 of which began enrolment at birth. These cohorts began between 1921 and 2015 and represented 19 countries, with varying sample sizes (236 to 21,000 children). As of 5 January 2020, were still recruiting. The main areas addressed were allergic diseases (14 cohorts) and environmental exposure (f12 cohorts) and most cohorts were publicly funded. Given the large costs of running cohorts and the importance of long follow-up periods in identifying the risk factors for disorders thought to have a perinatal/early life etiology, current cohorts must be designed to answer research questions considering several aspects, from genetic ones to psychological, social, and environmental ones. Furthermore, universally recognized methodological aspects are needed to permit the comparison and merging of cohort data.

Keywords: Europe; birth cohort; data collection; descriptive research; infant.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

I.C. is a member of the Editorial Board of IJERPH.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Literature selection from the two databases: Medline and Embase.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Selection of articles and number of related cohorts.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Location of the countries. The numbers refer to the number of times each country is represented in the 45 cohorts (the total is > 45 because of the multinational cohort, Europrevall). The darker the shading, the higher the numbers.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The 45 cohorts and their enrolment period, follow-up status (Ongoing/Closed), and duration (years). X-axis: enrollment period; y-axis: cohorts’ names/acronyms. * No specific follow-up termination date.; y-years.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Frequency of scientific areas addressed by the cohorts, divided into three groups based on starting year of the cohort.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. De Groot S., Van Der Linden N., Franken M.G., Blommestein H.M., Leeneman B., Van Rooijen E., Van Der Hoeven J., Wouters M.W., Westgeest H., Groot C.A.U.-D. Balancing the optimal and the feasible: A practical guide for setting up patient registries for the collection of real-world data for health care decision making based on dutch experiences. Value Health. 2016;20:627–636. doi: 10.1016/j.jval.2016.02.007. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Klebanoff M.A., Snowden J.M. Historical (retrospective) cohort studies and other epidemiologic study designs in perinatal research. Am. J. Obs. Gynecol. 2018;219:447–450. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2018.08.044. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Song J.W., Chung K. Observational studies: Cohort and case-control studies. Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 2010;126:2234–2242. doi: 10.1097/PRS.0b013e3181f44abc. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sessler D.I., Imrey P. Clinical research methodology 2. Anesth. Analg. 2015;121:1043–1051. doi: 10.1213/ANE.0000000000000861. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Gliklich R.E., Dreyer N.A., Leavy M.B., editors. Registries for Evaluating Patient Outcomes: A User’s Guide. 3rd ed. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; Rockville, MD, USA: 2014. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources