8.G. Scientific session: The German National Cohort (NAKO): Current state, follow up data collection and selected results
Authors:   Organised by: NAKO e.V.,   Chair persons: Barbara Bohn (Germany), Jennifer Hilger-Kolb (Germany)
Published: October 2024

This workshop aims to give an overview on current state and selected results of the German National Cohort (NAKO). NAKO is the largest, multidisciplinary population-based cohort study in Germany. The overall aims of NAKO are: 1) to elucidate pathways to major chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular, pulmonary, neuro-psychiatric, and infectious diseases, focusing on determinants and exposures (e.g., socioeconomic, psychosocial, behavioural, occupational, and environmental factors); 2) to assess regional differences; and to improve prevention and early detection of disease. Between 2014 and 2019 more than 205,000 men and women aged 20-74 years at baseline were recruited in 18 study centres across Germany. During their examination participants underwent an extensive programme including a face-to-face interview, self-administered, computer-based questionnaires, in-depth biomedical examinations, and the collection of various bio-samples. In addition, at 5 study centres a subgroup of almost 31,000, received whole-body magnet resonance imaging (MRI). In 4-5 year intervals, all study participants are re-invited for examination at the study centres. The first re-examination started in October 2018 and will be finished in July 2024. In parallel the pilot phase for the second re-examination will start in May 2024. The programme for both re-examinations is similar to the baseline programme. Thereby, longitudinal information on changes in risk factor profiles and in vascular, cardiac, metabolic, neurocognitive, pulmonary and sensory function is collected. During the COVID-19 pandemic two supplemental questionnaires focusing on pandemic-related aspects were provided to all NAKO participants at two different time points. The first COVID-19 questionnaire collected data on more than 160,000 participants during the first COVID-19-related lockdown in Spring 2020. The questionnaire included questions on general state of health, Sars-CoV-2 symptoms, changes in psychosocial, socioeconomic, and behavioural factors (e.g., physical activity). The workshop session consists of four presentations. The first presentation will provide insights into the extensive examination programme of NAKO, will give a short overview on the current state and plans for follow-up of data collection. In addition, it will briefly inform about possibilities to get access to NAKO data. Furthermore, the workshop will include three presentations on selected results of NAKO to demonstrate its broad research scope. The presentations will focus on the following topics: 1) cardiovascular disease and sex differences according to socioeconomic position, 2) cognitive functioning according to income, employment and living alone, 3) physical activity and changes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Key messages

• Due to the large sample size, and the broad research scope, NAKO provides an excellent resource to scientists form different research disciplines and enforces interdisciplinary collaborations.

• The workshop will be informative to researchers who are planning to work with NAKO data as data access within the European Union/the European Economic Area is open since spring 2024.