Approved Research

Epidemiological studies on chronic diseases and related factors of the elderly population in the UK Biobank

Lay summary

In recent years, more studies have explored the association of disease with influencing factors through epidemiological methods such as cross-sectional studies or cohort studies. Early intervention in chronic diseases can effectively reduce the damage of diseases to the human body and promote the development of "healthy aging". This project plans to find the association between chronic diseases (specifically hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, coronary heart disease, stroke and cancers, etc.)  and risk factors, including demographic and sociological characteristics (gender, education, etc.), lifestyle (physical activity, diet, smoking, etc.), and genetics (addiction, metabolism, aging, etc.), in the elderly group (age 60 years or older) through the data of UK Biobank.

Specifically, we aim to explore, using relevant data over 36 months, in the population aged 60+ years for:

(1) Risk factors for chronic diseases, including demographic and sociological characteristics (gender, education, etc.), lifestyle (physical activity, diet, smoking, etc.), and genetics (addiction, metabolism, aging).

(2) Whether baseline levels of some blood markers, such as total cholesterol, triglycerides, and lipoproteins,  are associated with the development of chronic diseases and outcome events such as death.