EPIC-Germany – A Source for Studies into Diet and Risk of Chronic Diseases

Abstract

The ‘European Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)’ represents one of the main scientific activities of the EU program ‘Europe against Cancer’ and is a large-scale cohort study on diet and chronic diseases, especially cancer, with approximately 475,000 study participants. The German contribution amounted to 53,000 study participants recruited between 1994 and 1998. The study instruments of the baseline examination included self-administered questionnaires for optical reading, PC-guided interviews, and physical examinations. These instruments covered different aspects of lifestyle, with a particular focus on diet. In addition, about 95% of the participants provided 30 ml of blood. The blood was stored in liquid nitrogen for further use, preferentially in nested case-control studies. All interviews and examinations were conducted by trained interviewers in examination centers established for this study in local health offices. Every 2 years, a follow-up questionnaire is mailed to the study participants. The follow-up questionnaires will be used as the major source of outcome information and to update exposure information. The self-reported diseases are verified by medical data. In the future, record linkage with local cancer registries will help to support the identification and collection of incident cancer cases. Only an outline of hypotheses was formulated at the very beginning of EPIC in 1992. In the future, each etiological study will be based on detailed research hypotheses according to the existing knowledge and identified research gaps. These studies will be conducted on cancer at the international level and on non-cancer diseases at the national or local level.

Recent weight changes and weight cycling as predictors of subsequent two year weight change in a middle-aged cohort

“…The EPIC-Potsdam Study 30 represents one study centre of the European multi-centre, prospective cohort study EPIC. 31 Baseline recruitment in Potsdam, Germany, started in 1994 and ended in 1998.…”

Association between socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and utilization of colonoscopy in the EPIC–Heidelberg cohort

“…However, validation studies have shown that self-reported data on colonoscopy are very dependable (Baier et al, 2000;Hall et al, 2004;Hoffmeister et al, 2007). Third, as only 38.5% of individuals originally invited (random population sample) had agreed to participate in the EPIC study, the studied cohort is a selfselected subgroup of the underlying population (Boeing et al, 1999a(Boeing et al, , 1999b. As previous investigations have shown that the educational level of the EPICHeidelberg population is higher than that of the reference population, selection bias can be assumed.…”

“…As previous investigations have shown that the educational level of the EPICHeidelberg population is higher than that of the reference population, selection bias can be assumed. However, this selective participation does not prevent etiological conclusions as associations are derived internally as the relative risk (Boeing et al, 1999a(Boeing et al, , 1999b. In the analyses presented here, only individuals who completed all three questions on colonoscopy utilization (n = 15 014) were included.…”

Adherence to recommendations of the German food pyramid and risk of chronic diseases: results from the EPIC-Potsdam study

“…Baseline examinations comprised a self-administered food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), a computer-guided interview on lifestyle habits and medical history, and anthropometric measurements performed by trained staff. Every 2-3 years, the participants received a mailed follow-up questionnaire to assess incident diseases (Bergmann et al, 1999;Boeing et al, 1999b). Response rates for each follow-up round were between 93 and 96%.…”