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The European Journal of Public Health 2007 17(6):548-549; doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckm086
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© 2007. The Author(s) This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Commentaries

The case for large scale fungible cohorts

John E. J. Gallacher

Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Cardiff University, UK

Correspondence: Dr J. Gallacher, Department of Primary Care and Public Health, University Hospital of Wales, Heath Park, Cardiff, CF14 4YS, UK, tel: 029 2068 7238, fax: 029 2068 7100, e-mail: Gallacher@cf.ac.uk

Received April 20, 2007, accepted July 23, 2007

The first 10% of the full text of this article appears below.

Recruitment to UK Biobank has begun. The planned recruitment to a cohort of 500 000 men and women aged 40–69 over 5 years remains an ambitious target, but one which demonstrates the scale of study that is required to investigate many emerging research questions. The essential feature of a cohort study, following change over time in exposure and health status at the individual level, is a natural method through which to obtain a complete model of disease causation and public health.1

The value of large scale cohort studies is their ability to address many aetiologic questions definitively, particularly those involving gene/environment interactions. Large numbers also mean that many research questions can be answered in socially and politically acceptable time frames. However, due to inevitably low response rates, their public health utility . . . [Full Text of this Article]


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