The Tromsø Study
The Tromsø Study:
The Tromsø Study is a prospective repeated population-based health survey of men and women aged 20-97 years in Northern Norway (28). Specific age groups in the municipality were invited to the different surveys and over time this enabled collection of repeated risk factor measurements in many subjects. The 3rd Tromsø Study survey (Tromsø) was carried out in 1986-87 and those invited were all men in the 20-61 age group, all women in the 20-56 age group, a randomly selected 10% sample from the 12-19 age group (born 1967-1974) and a subsample who were included in a family intervention study. A total of 21,826 participated, 75% of the invited. Of these, data on all men and women aged 20-59 years will be included in the BiomarCaRE study (n= 20,300), including blood samples from Tromsø 3 and also from the subsequent Tromsø 4 survey (participation rate 77%, n=27,158) which contains repeated measurements from Tromsø 3. The cohort is being followed up with registration of incident myocardial infarction, stroke (ischemic, hemorrhagic, subarachnoid haemorrhage and unclassifiable), diabetes, atrial fibrillation and cause-specific death. Cases of incident events were identified by linkage to the diagnosis registry at the University Hospital of North Norway (the only hospital in the region) and to the National Causes of Death Registry. Validation of hospitalized and out-of hospital events was performed by an independent endpoint committee and based on data from hospital and out-of hospital journals, autopsy records, and death certificates. Slightly modified World Health Organization MONICA/MORGAM criteria for myocardial infarction (29) and stroke (30) were used. Follow-up is completed to December 31st 2010.
