German National Cohort – A Large-Scale Longitudinal Cohort

The Department of Epidemiology presents

Speaker:

Prof. Dr. Annette Peters
Chair of Epidemiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat München
Director, Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München

Abstract: The German National Cohort (NAKO) is a multidisciplinary, population-based cohort study that aims to investigate the development and causes of diseases, to identify risk factors and to improve early detection and prevention of disease. Between 2014-2019, a total of 205,415 persons aged 20-74 years were recruited and examined in 18 study centres across Germany. Participants are followed for incident diseases via questionnaires, health records and disease registries. A re-examination of study participants that started in 2019 is currently ongoing. The presentation will describe the study design, recruitment, instruments and examination modalities. Ongoing research from the areas of environmental and molecular epidemiology will highlight the role of longitudinal cohort studies with repeated examinations using the German KORA study as an example. The opportunities to further understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis on health using NAKO will be discussed.