1.The China Kadoorie Biobank: related methodology and baseline characteristics of the participants
Li-Ming LI ; Jun LV ; Yu GUO ; Collins RORY ; Jun-Shi CHEN ; Peto RICHARD ; Fan WU ; Zheng-Ming CHEN
Chinese Journal of Epidemiology 2012;33(3):249-255
Objective To study the separate and combined effects of environment,lifestyle,physical characteristics,blood biomarkers and genetic factors on aetiology of major chronic diseases in adult Chinese.Methods China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) is a large blood-based prospective cohort study.The baseline survey took place in 5 urban and 5 rural areas across China during 2004-2008,with collection of data through questionnaire,physical examination and blood samples.Following the baseline survey,5% of the randomly selected participants were surveyed in 2008,and repeated every 4-5 years.All participants would be followed for cause-specific mortality and morbidity through registries and for any hospital admission through linkages with health insurance databases.Results Overall,512 891 adults aged 30-79 years (mean 51.5) were recruited,including 41.0% men and 55.9% from rural areas.Blood collection was successfully done in 99.98% of the participants.The prevalence of current regular smoking was 61.3% in men and 2.4% in women.The prevalence of regular alcohol consumption (i.e.,weekly) was 33.4% in men and 2.1% in women.At the baseline,41.8% of men and 45.3% of women were overweight or obese (i.e.,BMI≥24.0 kg/m2) and 32.2% of men and 30.2% of women were hypertensive (i.e.,SBP≥140 mm Hg or DBP≥90 mm Hg).For each of the main baseline variables,there were large variations on age,sex and areas of study.Conclusion CKB seemed to be a powerful and rich resource in studying the environmental and genetic determinants of major chronic diseases in the Chinese population.