- Title
- Mobilizing an underused resource: cohort studies for population health intervention research
- Creator
- Edwards, Nancy; Plotnikoff, Ronald C.
- Relation
- International Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 47, Issue 6, p. 1730-1733
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyy191
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2018
- Description
- Prospective, longitudinal cohort studies involve large, expensive and long-term investments by research funders. Traditionally, these studies have focused on risk factor analysis—contributing substantially to our understanding of disease trends, predisposing and protective influences on illness and injury, and susceptibility during life course transitions. However, we have now entered the era of big data and megacohorts, supported by unprecedented computing and statistical analytical power, and fuelled by biobanks that capture hundreds of thousands of biologically diverse samples to answer questions in the field of epigenetics and genomics.1 To this end, a number of national research funding councils have reviewed existing and planned cohorts, and developed research agendas to maximize these investments.2–4 Whereas we applaud these efforts, we are concerned that this new emphasis on links to biorepositories overlooks the potential for a complementary population health intervention research agenda. We use Hawe and Potvin’s5 definition for this commentary: ‘Population health intervention research uses scientific methods to produce knowledge about policy and program interventions that operate within or outside of the health sector and have the potential to impact health at the population level’ (p. 1-8).
- Subject
- cohort studies; epidemiologic studies; humans; population health; research design
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1448004
- Identifier
- uon:43283
- Identifier
- ISSN:1464-3685
- Language
- eng
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