The HUNT Study includes large total population-based cohorts from the 1980ies, covering 125 000 Norwegian participants; HUNT1 (1984-86), HUNT2 (1995-97) and HUNT3 (2006-08). The study was primarily set up to address arterial hypertension, diabetes, screening of tuberculosis, and quality of life. However, the scope has expanded over time. In the latest survey a state of the art biobank was established, with availability of biomaterial for decades ahead. The three population based surveys now contribute to important knowledge regarding health related lifestyle, prevalence and incidence of somatic and mental illness and disease, health determinants, and associations between disease phenotypes and genotypes. Every citizen of Nord-Trøndelag County in Norway being 20 years or older, have been invited to all the surveys for adults. Participants may be linked in families and followed up longitudinally between the surveys and in several national health- and other registers covering the total population. The HUNT Study includes data from questionnaires, interviews, clinical measurements and biological samples (blood and urine). The questionnaires included questions on socioeconomic conditions, health related behaviours, symptoms, illnesses and diseases. Data from the HUNT Study are available for researchers who satisfy some basic requirements (www.ntnu.edu/hunt), whether affiliated in Norway or abroad.

BackgroundPopulation based studies are important for prevalence, incidence and association studies, but their external validity might be threatened by decreasing participation rates. The 50 807 participants in the third survey of the HUNT Study (HUNT3, 2006-08), represented 54% of the invited, necessitating a nonparticipation study.MethodsQuestionnaire data from HUNT3 were compared with data collected from several sources: a short questionnaire to nonparticipants, anonymous data on specific diagnoses and prescribed medication extracted from randomly selected general practices, registry data from Statistics Norway on socioeconomic factors and mortality, and from the Norwegian Prescription Database on drug consumption.ResultsParticipation rates for HUNT3 depended on age, sex and type of symptoms and diseases, but only small changes were found in the overall prevalence estimates when including data from 6922 nonparticipants. Among nonparticipants, the prevalences of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus and psychiatric disorders were higher both in nonparticipant data and data extracted from general practice, compared to that reported by participants, whilst the opposite pattern was found, at least among persons younger than 80 years, for urine incontinence, musculoskeletal pain and headache. Registry data showed that the nonparticipants had lower socioeconomic status and a higher mortality than participants.ConclusionNonparticipants had lower socioeconomic status, higher mortality and showed higher prevalences of several chronic diseases, whilst opposite patterns were found for common problems like musculoskeletal pain, urine incontinence and headache. The impact on associations should be analyzed for each diagnosis, and data making such analyses possible are provided in the present paper.

The Young-HUNT Study is the adolescent part (13-19 years) of HUNT, the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study, Norway. Three cross-sectional surveys have been conducted: Young-HUNT1 (1995-97), Young-HUNT2 (2000-01) and Young-HUNT3 (2006-08). Major public health issues, including somatic and mental health, quality of life and health behaviours are covered. Young-HUNT was performed in schools visited by trained nurses. Data collection included self-reported questionnaires, structured interviews, clinical measurements and, in Young-HUNT3, buccal smears. The total response rates varied from 90% to 83% and the Young-HUNT database includes 17 820 teenagers. Some Young-HUNT1 participants constitute the baseline for two follow-up studies: a 4-year follow-up through adolescence to Young-HUNT2 and an 11-year follow-up into young adulthood to the adult HUNT3. Longitudinal data are also obtained by linkage of data from Young-HUNT to different national health registers. Linkage to family registers allows the possibility of studying genetic and environmental interactions through generations. Presently 20 PhD students are working with the data, 11 Young-HUNT based PhD theses have been completed and more than 50 scientific papers published.

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