Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2023 February, 259(2)
Design and Progress of Child Health Assessments at Community Support Centers in the Birth and Three-Generation Cohort Study of the Tohoku Medical Megabank Project
Tomoko Kobayashi,1,2 Mika Kobayashi,1,2 Naoko Minegishi,1 Masahiro Kikuya,1 Taku Obara,1 Mami Ishikuro,1 Chizuru Yamanaka,1 Tomomi Onuma,1 Keiko Murakami,1 Fumihiko Ueno,1 Aoi Noda,1 Akira Uruno,1 Junichi Sugawara,1 Kichiya Suzuki,1 Eiichi N. Kodama,1,2 Yohei Hamanaka,1 Naho Tsuchiya,1 Mana Kogure,1 Naoki Nakaya,1 Makiko Taira,1 Mika Sakurai-Yageta,1 Toru Tamahara,1 Junko Kawashima,1 Maki Goto,1 Akihito Otsuki,1 Ritsuko Shimizu,1 Soichi Ogishima,1,3 Hiroaki Hashizume,1 Fuji Nagami,1 Tomohiro Nakamura,1 Atsushi Hozawa,1 Tadao Kobayashi,1 Nobuo Fuse,1 Shinichi Kuriyama,1,2 Shigeo Kure1,2 and Masayuki Yamamoto1,2
1Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
2Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
3Advanced Research Center for Innovations in Next-Generation Medicine, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
The Tohoku Medical Megabank Project (TMM) has been conducting a birth and three-generation cohort study (the BirThree Cohort Study). We recruited 73,529 pregnant women and their family members for this cohort study, which included 23,143 newborns and 9,459 of their siblings. We designed and are in the process of conducting three-step health assessments for each newborn at approximately ages of 5, 10 and 16. These health assessments are administered at seven community support centers. Trained genome medical research coordinators conduct physical examinations of and collect biological specimens from each participant. The Sendai Children’s Health Square has been established as the headquarters for these child health assessments and is utilized to accumulate knowledge that can facilitate the proper practice of child health assessments. We designed all the relevant health assessments facilities to allow parents and their children to participate in the health assessments concomitantly. Our centers serve as places where child participants and their parents can feel at ease as a result of the implementation of safety measures and child hospitality measures. The TMM BirThree Cohort Study is in the process of conducting strategically detailed health assessments and genome analysis, which can facilitate studies concerning the gene-environment interactions relevant to noncommunicable diseases. Through these operations, our study allows for a significant depth of data to be collected in terms of the number of biospecimens under study and the comprehensiveness of both basic and clinical data alongside relevant family information.
Keywords —— biobank; birth and three-generation cohort study; child health assessments; genome cohort; prospective cohort study
© 2023 Tohoku University Medical Press
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Tohoku J. Exp. Med 2023, 259, 93-105.
Correspondence: Tomoko Kobayashi, M.D., Ph.D., Tohoku University Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8573, Japan.
e-mail: fukuikobayashi@med.tohoku.ac.jp
Correspondence: Masayuki Yamamoto, M.D., Ph.D., Tohoku University Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8573, Japan.
e-mail: mashiyamamoto@med.tohoku.ac.jp