We have have been following up two cohorts of people born 1924-33 (7 086 subjects) and 1934-44 (8 760 subjects) at Helsinki University Central Hospital and the Midwives hospital in Helsinki, respectively. We have abstracted data on childhood growth from birth records and school health care cards, for the younger cohort also from child welfare clinic records. The early growth data has been linked to national health care registers.
The study can be divided into three parts
1) An epidemiological part
2) A clinical part
3) A genetic part
In the epidemiological part data has been abstracted from birth records and child welfare and school health records. The growth data has been linked to national health care registers such as the Death register and Hospital Discharge Register. With these data it is possible to investigate the effect of early growth on the occurrence of e.g. coronary heart disease, hypertension and type 2 diabetes.
We are also carrying out clinical studies in which ~ 2500 randomly selected persons from the two cohorts (500 from the older and 2003 from the younger cohort) have participated. The clinical examination included testing of glucose tolerance, determining blood lipids, ECG, measuring blood pressure, body composition and muscular strength and questionnaires on history of illness, social background and physical activity.
The aim of the genetic part is to investigate how candidate genes, affect growth and adult health outcomes.
Over 60 international peer-reviewed publications based on findings in the HBCS have been published.