Journal of Epidemiology (Jan 2021)

Study Profile of the Tohoku Medical Megabank Community-Based Cohort Study

  • Atsushi Hozawa,
  • Kozo Tanno,
  • Naoki Nakaya,
  • Tomohiro Nakamura,
  • Naho Tsuchiya,
  • Takumi Hirata,
  • Akira Narita,
  • Mana Kogure,
  • Kotaro Nochioka,
  • Ryohei Sasaki,
  • Nobuyuki Takanashi,
  • Kotaro Otsuka,
  • Kiyomi Sakata,
  • Shinichi Kuriyama,
  • Masahiro Kikuya,
  • Osamu Tanabe,
  • Junichi Sugawara,
  • Kichiya Suzuki,
  • Yoichi Suzuki,
  • Eiichi N Kodama,
  • Nobuo Fuse,
  • Hideyasu Kiyomoto,
  • Hiroaki Tomita,
  • Akira Uruno,
  • Yohei Hamanaka,
  • Hirohito Metoki,
  • Mami Ishikuro,
  • Taku Obara,
  • Tomoko Kobayashi,
  • Kazuyuki Kitatani,
  • Takako Takai-Igarashi,
  • Soichi Ogishima,
  • Mamoru Satoh,
  • Hideki Ohmomo,
  • Akito Tsuboi,
  • Shinichi Egawa,
  • Tadashi Ishii,
  • Kiyoshi Ito,
  • Sadayoshi Ito,
  • Yasuyuki Taki,
  • Naoko Minegishi,
  • Naoto Ishii,
  • Masao Nagasaki,
  • Kazuhiko Igarashi,
  • Seizo Koshiba,
  • Ritsuko Shimizu,
  • Gen Tamiya,
  • Keiko Nakayama,
  • Hozumi Motohashi,
  • Jun Yasuda,
  • Atsushi Shimizu,
  • Tsuyoshi Hachiya,
  • Yuh Shiwa,
  • Teiji Tominaga,
  • Hiroshi Tanaka,
  • Kotaro Oyama,
  • Ryoichi Tanaka,
  • Hiroshi Kawame,
  • Akimune Fukushima,
  • Yasushi Ishigaki,
  • Tomoharu Tokutomi,
  • Noriko Osumi,
  • Tadao Kobayashi,
  • Fuji Nagami,
  • Hiroaki Hashizume,
  • Tomohiko Arai,
  • Yoshio Kawaguchi,
  • Shinichi Higuchi,
  • Masaki Sakaida,
  • Ryujin Endo,
  • Satoshi Nishizuka,
  • Ichiro Tsuji,
  • Jiro Hitomi,
  • Motoyuki Nakamura,
  • Kuniaki Ogasawara,
  • Nobuo Yaegashi,
  • Kengo Kinoshita,
  • Shigeo Kure,
  • Akio Sakai,
  • Seiichiro Kobayashi,
  • Kenji Sobue,
  • Makoto Sasaki,
  • Masayuki Yamamoto

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2188/jea.JE20190271
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 31, no. 1
pp. 65 – 76

Abstract

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Background: We established a community-based cohort study to assess the long-term impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake on disaster victims and gene-environment interactions on the incidence of major diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Methods: We asked participants to join our cohort in the health check-up settings and assessment center based settings. Inclusion criteria were aged 20 years or over and living in Miyagi or Iwate Prefecture. We obtained information on lifestyle, effect of disaster, blood, and urine information (Type 1 survey), and some detailed measurements (Type 2 survey), such as carotid echography and calcaneal ultrasound bone mineral density. All participants agreed to measure genome information and to distribute their information widely. Results: As a result, 87,865 gave their informed consent to join our study. Participation rate at health check-up site was about 70%. The participants in the Type 1 survey were more likely to have psychological distress than those in the Type 2 survey, and women were more likely to have psychological distress than men. Additionally, coastal residents were more likely to have higher degrees of psychological distress than inland residents, regardless of sex. Conclusion: This cohort comprised a large sample size and it contains information on the natural disaster, genome information, and metabolome information. This cohort also had several detailed measurements. Using this cohort enabled us to clarify the long-term effect of the disaster and also to establish personalized prevention based on genome, metabolome, and other omics information.

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