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. 2025 May;40(5):581-599.
doi: 10.1007/s10654-025-01229-6. Epub 2025 May 12.

Cohort profile: the CORDELIA study (Collaborative cOhorts Reassembled Data to study mEchanisms and Longterm Incidence of chronic diseAses)

Álvaro Hernáez  1   2   3 , Anna Camps-Vilaró  4   5   6 , Sara Polo-Alonso  4   5   7 , Isaac Subirana  5   8 , Rafel Ramos  9   10   11   12 , Rafael de Cid  13   14 , Fernando Rodríguez-Artalejo  15   16   17 , Roberto Elosua  5   6   8 , M Dolores Chirlaque  17   18   19 , Pilar Amiano  17   20   21 , Marcelino Bermúdez-López  22   23 , Marcela Guevara  17   24   25 , Sergio Cinza-Sanjurjo  5   26   27   28 , María-José Sánchez  17   29   30 , Antonio Cabrera de León  31   32 , Martín Laclaustra  5   33   34   35 , Gemma Rojo-Martínez  36   37   38 , María J Guembe-Suescun  39   40 , Beatriz Pérez-Gómez  17   41 , Tomás Vega-Alonso  42 , Pere Torán-Monserrat  9   43   44   45 , David Lora-Pablos  46   47   48 , José María Huerta  17   18 , José M Valdivielso  22   49 , Irene R Dégano  4   5   6   50 , Francisco J Félix-Redondo  51   52   53 , Ana María Gandarillas  54 , Sergio Valdés  36   37   38 , Xavier Mundet-Tuduri  55 , Pedro L Sánchez  5   56   57 , Vicente Martín-Sánchez  16   58 , Fernando Rigo  59 , Manuela Alonso-Sampedro  12   27 , Conchi Moreno-Iribas  17   24   25 , Juan Carlos Martín-Escudero  60 , Elías Delgado  61   62   63   64 , Maria Grau  17   65   66 , Inés Urrutia  38   63   67   68   69 , Diana Ovejero  70   71 , Inés Quintela  72 , Ruth Martí-Lluch  9   10   11   12 , Natalia Blay  13   14 , José R Banegas  15   17 , Helena Tizón-Marcos  4   5   73 , Jesús Humberto Gómez  17   18 , Amaia Aizpurua  20   21 , Eva Castro-Boqué  22 , Josu Delfrade  17   24   25 , Miguel Ángel Prieto-Díaz  74 , Miguel Rodríguez-Barranco  17   29   30 , Delia Almeida-González  31 , Belén Moreno-Franco  5   33   34   35 , Wasima Oualla-Bachiri  36   37   38 , Carmen Sayón-Orea  24   25   75   76 , Elena Plans-Beriso  17   41 , José Eugenio Lozano  42 , Víctor M López-Lifante  43   77 , Pilar Cancelas-Navia  46   47 , Natalia Cabrera-Castro  17   18 , Serafí Cambray  22   78 , Lluís Zacarías-Pons  9   12 , Daniel Fernández-Bergés  51   52 , Encarnación Donoso-Navarro  79 , Cristina Maldonado-Araque  36   37   38 , Josep Franch-Nadal  38   55 , Pedro Ignacio Dorado-Díaz  5   56   57 , Alejandro Villarín-Castro  80 , Guillem Frontera-Juan  59 , Francisco Gude  12   27   81 , Naroa Andueza  24   25 , María Téllez-Plaza  15   41 , Jessica Ares-Blanco  61   62   63 , Raquel Cruz  64   82 , Marc Ribas-Aulinas  9 , Jordi Barretina  13 , Pilar Guallar-Castillón  15   16   17 , Miguel Caínzos-Achirica  4   5   73 , Sandra Milena Colorado-Yohar  17   18   83 , Adrián Llorente  20   21 , Juan Miguel Diaz-Tocados  22 , Eva Ardanaz  17   24   25 , Rafael Manuel Micó-Pérez  84 , Nicolás Francisco Fernandez-Martinez  17   29   30 , María Del Cristo Rodríguez-Pérez  31 , Ana Cenarro  5   33   34   85 , Alfonso L Calle-Pascual  38   86   87 , Jaume Marrugat  88   89
Affiliations

Cohort profile: the CORDELIA study (Collaborative cOhorts Reassembled Data to study mEchanisms and Longterm Incidence of chronic diseAses)

Álvaro Hernáez et al. Eur J Epidemiol. 2025 May.

Abstract

The CORDELIA Study (Collaborative Cohorts Reassembled Data to Study Mechanisms and Long-term Incidence of Chronic Diseases) combines 35 Spanish population cohorts to investigate the clinical, environmental, genetic, and omics determinants of cardiovascular disease in the Southern European population. It aims to conduct the largest genome-wide association study to date on cardiovascular disease in this population, improve predictions of cardiovascular incidence using genomic and clinical data, and identify subgroups that would benefit most from targeted pharmacological and lifestyle interventions. CORDELIA includes 196,632 individuals (ages 18-84, 54% female, 96% born in Spain, 20% with higher education, recruited from 1989 to 2020, with follow-up periods ranging from 5 to 30 years), with DNA samples available for 117,342 participants (60%). Of the participants, 24% were current smokers, 43% hypertensive, 11% diabetic, 15% medicated with lipid-lowering drugs, 44% overweight, and 27% obese. If not already available, genotyping is being performed using the Axiom™ Spain Biobank array (~ 750,000 variants, including 115,000 specific and 50,000 rare functional variants from the Spanish population). The cohort also includes incident events (coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure, peripheral artery disease, hypertension, diabetes); date and cause of death; and harmonized data on risk factors (body mass index, waist circumference, lipid profile, blood pressure, glucose, creatinine), lifestyle (smoking, physical activity, diet, alcohol), and socioeconomic status. 99,019 participants (50%) also provide plasma samples. CORDELIA will significantly contribute to understanding the complex interplay of risk factors contributing to cardiovascular disease and advance the fields of precision medicine and public health in Southern European individuals.

Keywords: Cardiovascular disease; Cohort; Genome-wide association study; Mortality; Southern Europe.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interests: The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. Ethics approval: This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval for the CORDELIA Study was granted by the Ethics Committee of the Parc de Salut Mar (2023/10785/I, date: March 29, 2023). All cohorts have obtained informed consent by their participants and were approved by the corresponding ethics committees. The original informed consents have been expanded for this study by applying the Additional Disposition 17.2.C of the Spanish Organic Law 3/2018 on the Protection of Personal Data and the guarantee of digital rights, which allow for participant follow-up, aggregation of anonymized data, and the analyses described in this project. Extended information about ethical approval in the individual cohorts is available in Appendix III. Consent to participate: All participants in the CORDELIA cohorts agreed to participate after providing written informed consent for each cohort. Participants were given the option to decline their participation in the CORDELIA project through a document made available online in the websites of the individual cohorts, in accordance with Spanish law.

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