Hamburg Health Study Tens of thousands of hearts are being examined

On Monday, the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) presented the Hamburg City Health Study (HCHS), the largest urban health study in the world. Between 45,000 and 50,000 citizens of Hamburg between the ages of 45 and 75 years should complete questionnaires on their health and participate in investigations as part of a six-hour procedure. The doctors and researchers want to collect data on 26 of the most common diseases.

Hamburg Health Study investigates risk factors of common diseases
There are still many puzzles in medicine that could not be solved despite intensive research and modern technology. A large-scale health study could solve some of these phenomena in the future. Stefan Blankenberg from UKE calls this example heart failure in a conversation with "sueddeutsche.de". "This is always a mystery," said the head of cardiology at the heart center. "We do not know why the pumping function of the heart wears off in some people aged 60 to 80 years." If doctors actually find an explanation, some early cardiac death could be prevented.

The results of the health study, which feed into a data and biomaterials bank, could help. The findings from the investigations should be used to learn more about diseases such as heart failure, heart attack, atrial fibrillation, stroke or dementia. Among other things, the focus is on risk factors. This could be used to derive therapies that help people before they become ill. "The hope is to be able to predict with a certain probability which type of disease a person will get," says Blankenberg.

"The HCHS wants to understand the network that stands behind illnesses. Because illness and health do not depend on individual risk factors, but are the result of a complex network of influencing factors such as genetics, pre-existing diseases, lifestyle or environmental influences, "informs the UKE in a statement. "The better these relationships are known, the more focused the major folk diseases can be diagnosed and treated."

Hamburg Health Study is the largest of its kind in the world
"The study will collect a total of 270 million biodata - pseudonymized and stored under the strictest privacy requirements," UKE said. "They enable the construction of one of the largest biomaterial databases in the world and make far-reaching network research possible in the first place."

Study participants are invited randomly by the UKE. They must complete standardized questionnaires within six hours and complete nine research stations that include imaging, clinical and genetic analyzes. Each subject has 6,000 analysis data, plus images and frozen biomaterials. The investigations will be carried out in two study cycles of six years each. The first results of HCHS are expected to be submitted by UKE at the end of 2016. In 2021, the first long-term results can be presented.

Hamburg Health Study to supplement National Cohort
It took three years to prepare for the Hamburg Health Study, which involves more than 30 UKE clinics and institutes. They also bear part of the cost. In addition, sponsors and sponsors support the financing. The UKE has hired 65 full-time employees and set up a study center for the study alone.

In Germany, another health study is currently being conducted, the National Cohort, in which 200,000 volunteers participate nationwide. The HCHS should complement this study.

A similar project has been conducted in the United States since 1948, the Framingham Heart Study, which involves physicians and researchers studying approximately 15,000 residents of Framingham for generations on coronary heart disease and arteriosclerosis. (Ag)

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