Integrating lifecourse approaches, biologic and digital phenotypes in support of heart and lung disease epidemiologic research

PROJECT SUMMARY
Increasing evidence suggests that early life and reproductive events, including specific pregnancy
complications, predict future health risks including cardiovascular (CVD) risk factors (e.g., dyslipidemia,
hypertension, obesity), clinical CVD events, and obstructive lung disease. Similarly, increasing evidence
suggests that exposures during pregnancy may affect offspring’s cardiovascular and lung health throughout
life. In this application, we propose to strengthen the infrastructure necessary to collect data on traditional and
emerging risk factors for heart and lung diseases and to document the occurrence of these conditions within
three related cohorts: the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS-II), the Nurses’ Health Study 3 (NHS3), and the
Growing Up Today Study (GUTS). These cohorts collectively follow 188,698 individuals including more than
14,000 minority participants with large numbers of African Americans and Hispanic Americans. The cohorts
also follow more than 65,000 mother-adult offspring pairs, over 13,000 grandmother-mother-adult child triads
and over 16,000 sib-groups; resources that facilitate research aimed at identifying inter-generational risk
factors for CVD and obstructive lung diseases. Women in the two younger cohorts (NHS3 and GUTS) are in
the middle of the reproductive years, resulting in the accrual of approximately 1,000 new pregnancies per year.
Furthermore, study participants are broadly distributed across the United States, giving us the ability to
address questions regarding rural populations including areas considered to be Frontier. The proposed
infrastructure activities in these three related cohorts will ultimately support research aimed at identifying
intergenerational and early life risk factors for CVD (CHD, stroke) and obstructive lung disease (COPD and
asthma), as well as of relevant biologic intermediate endpoints, from genes to geography. We will focus our
efforts in four areas: 1) the maximization of existing resources – including updating and maintenance of food
composition databases and geographically-linked exposure data based on geographical information systems
(GIS), 2) the collection of biological specimens tied to an in-person collection of blood pressure and
anthropometric data, 3) the expansion of web-based mobile technology and “Big Data” capabilities for the
cohorts, and 4) strengthening our capability for data sharing. The ability to combine biomarker data, state-of-
the-art mobile high-resolution measures, and traditional epidemiologic risk factor data, collected across
generations and throughout the life-course in three related cohorts will enable us and others to conduct
powerful etiologic and translational research. Our goal is to maintain the quality of follow-up and associated
data, as well as to broaden the technologies that would provide innovative dimensions to the cohort for novel
scientific discovery.

Grant Number: 3U01HL145386-07S1
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: Jorge Chavarro