The British Regional Heart Study (BRHS) is a long-term cohort investigating the causes of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in men and seeking to understand the effect of co-morbidities on CVD & ageing.
The BRHS provides a geographically and socially representative cohort for the prospective investigation of CVD in British men spanning over four decades. We are immensely grateful to the BRHS participants, to the BRHS general practices for their continued support, to our collaborators and to the BRHS research team members past and present.
Established in 1978-80, the British Regional Heart Study (BRHS) study has benefited from four repeated assessments of the men at ages in middle (40-59 years) and later life (60-79, 72-91 and 79-98 years). Participants have been followed up for >40 years at four timepoints in middle-age through to very old ages for a wide range of health outcomes, including all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity, physical disability and frailty using GP records and participant questionnaires.
This unique ageing cohort with extensive phenotyping, genotyping and detailed follow-up will contribute and allow studying healthy cardiovascular ageing including prevention of CVD, heart failure, stroke, diabetes and related disabilities (frailty, dementia) in older age and to examine other key health outcomes related to CVD and associated with healthy ageing, such as physical function, disability, frailty, dental health, malnutrition and sarcopenia.
Goya Wannamethee, BRHS Director said, “The BRHS is delighted to become a member of the Health Data Research Alliance. We are keen to make our research data accessible to researchers so that it can be fully utilized for the study of cardiovascular disease prevention and healthy cardiovascular ageing”.
Website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/epidemiology-health-care/research/primary-care-and-population-health/research/brhs
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