Diet, Cancer and Health - Next Generations
The largest population study conducted in Denmark
The original cohort ‘Diet, Cancer and Health’ is one of the largest population studies conducted in Denmark. During 1993-1996, 57,053 men and women aged 50-64 were enrolled and underwent extensive examinations including blood, urine and fat tissue samples, toenail clippings, anthropometric measurements and provided detailed information about their diet and lifestyle. On the basis of this cohort a unique data- and biobank have contributed to more than 600 research projects.
Time for the next generations
The ‘Diet, Cancer and Health – Next Generations’ (DCH-NG) is an extension of the original cohort and will include biological children, their spouses and grandchildren of the 57,000 participants. The new generations will be invited to participate in a baseline examination where they will be asked to provide blood, saliva, urine and stool samples as well as detailed information about their diet and lifestyle. The collection, handling and storage of biological material will be in line with the highest international standards and new technologies such as web-based questionnaires and applications for use in smartphones, recording physical activity, will be applied.
The three generation cohort will allow in-depth trans-generational studies
The overall objective of the DCH-NG cohort is to establish a unique resource available for the broad research community. A multi-generational study will enable researchers to identify novel mechanism leading to the development of cancer and other lifestyle diseases. Thus, we will be able to investigate the interaction between gene, diet and lifestyle with a trans-generation perspective. Around 280,000 descendants have been identified and we hope that around 50,000 will participate.
More individualized cancer prevention
We anticipate that DCH-NG will contribute with new knowledge supporting more differentiated counseling, which in the future would lead to more efficient and individualized cancer prevention.
The DCH-NG data collection started in August 2015 and ended i February 2019.