engleski

Croatian Island's Birth Cohort Study - CRIBS

Birth cohort studies, together with long-term follow-up studies, are the most suitable way of investigating various factors associated with general health, growth and development. Specifically, adverse intrauterine factors are recognized to be associated with predisposition to the development of chronic disorders later in life: a phenomenon termed 'early life programming'. The CRoatian Birth Cohort Study (CRIBS), launched in November 2015, is the first birth cohort study in the Southern – East Europe. In the next three years we intent to include in the study up to 700 pregnant women and their newborns, inhabitants of three Dalmatian islands (Vis, Hvar and Brač) and the neighboring Split - Dalmatia County area. In addition to monitoring women`s health in pregnancy and fetal growth and development, we will continue to monitor newborns up to the age of 2 years. Furthermore, the participants will fill in a set of online questionnaires, both during and after the pregnancy (at particular children developmental milestones), with questions on their family data, genealogy, medical history data, nutrition, lifestyle and psychosocial characteristics, etc. In this pilot study we aim to identify the prevalence of modifiable risk factors for the development of the metabolic syndrome (MetS), one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in the world. Our main goal is to propose an efficient model for early intervention, because although it is well known that the genetic make-up of a person cannot be changed, there is a large set of modifiable risk factors for non-communicable diseases that can be altered by different lifestyle, nutrition and other interventions. The long-term goal of CRIBS is to implement a similar birth cohort study in Croatia - at national level, and to extent the research on MetS and related disorders by future genetic and epigenetic analyses.

birth cohort study; Dalmatian inslands; early life programming; genetic and epigenetic factors

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