Determinants of cardiovascular diseases in Eastern Europe: Longitudinal follow up of a multi-centre cohort study (The HAPIEE Project). (360G-Wellcome-081081_Z_06_Z)

In 2002, the Wellcome Trust awarded us a programme grant to establish a large prospective multi-centre cohort study to investigate social, psychosocial, dietary, lifestyle, biological and genetic determinants of the high rates and wide social disparities in cardiovascular diseases and other chronic conditions in Eastern Europe. The cohorts, based in Novosibirsk (Russia), Krakow (Poland), and six Czech towns, are now established. Extensive questionnaire and biological data and biochemical and DNA samples are available on a total of 29,000 men and women 45-69 years old at baseline. Detailed analyses of the baseline data are under way. In addition, at no extra cost to the Wellcome Trust, the cohorts are currently being re-examined and a fourth cohort is being set up in Lithuania. This proposal seeks funding for the crucial longitudinal phase of the study: the mortality and cardiovascular morbidity follow up and the analyses of the longitudinal data. Deaths will be identified through mortality registers; incident non-fatal cardiovascular events will be identified by postal questionnaires and linkages with hospital records and with existing registers of myocardial infarction and stroke, and validated against established criteria. The longitudinal analyses will investigate the relationship between baseline risk factors and fatal and non-fatal events.