DOI: 10.60645/bdc-1251-b4s6
title: Framingham Heart Study-Cohort (FHS-Cohort) - BioLINCC

description: 
<u>**Data Access NOTE **</u>

Please refer to the "Authorized Access" section below for information about how access to the data from this accession differs from many other dbGaP accessions. 

<u>**Related Studies **</u>

Other Framingham data available include: Imaging studies (Framingham Heart Study-Cohort (FHS-Cohort)-Imaging, [phs003593](./study.cgi?study_id=phs003593)), Genetics and genomics (Framingham Cohort, [phs000007](./study.cgi?study_id=phs000007)), Collaborative Cohort of Cohorts for COVID-19 Research (C4R): (Framingham Heart Study, [phs002911](./study.cgi?study_id=phs002911)), and as a component of the Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS-BioLINCC, [phs003637](./study.cgi?study_id=phs003637)). 

<u>**Available Data **</u>

<u>Original cohort</u>: data now include examination data from the first 32 clinical exams, selected ancillary data, and event follow-up through 2018. 

<u>Offspring/Omni1 cohort:</u> Data available include Framingham Offspring examination data from the first 9 clinical exams and selected ancillary data and event follow-up through 2019. Also included are the first 4 exams from the OMNI 1 cohort. 

<u>Third Generation/Omni2/New Offspring Cohort</u>: Data available include Framingham Generation 3 examination data from the first 3 clinical exams, selected ancillary data and event follow-up through 2019. Also included are the OMNI 2 and New Offspring (NOS) cohorts. 

A genetic pedigree is not provided for the Framingham phenotype only data. 

**<u>Objectives </u>**

The objectives of the Framingham Study are to study the incidence and prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its risk factors, trends in CVD incidence and its risk factors over time, and familial patterns of CVD and risk factors. Other important objectives include the estimation of incidence rates of disease and description of the natural history of cardiovascular disease, including the sequence of clinical signs and systems that precede the clinically recognizable syndrome and the consequences and course of clinically manifest disease. 

**<u>Background </u>**

<u>Original cohort</u>: The original cohort of the Framingham Study began in 1948 under the U.S. Public Health Service and was transferred under the direct operations of the new National Heart Institute, NIH, in 1949. Participants were sampled from Framingham, Massachusetts, including both men and women. This was the first prospective study of cardiovascular disease and identified the concept of risk factors and their joint effects. 

<u>Offspring/Omni1 cohort</u>: With the aging of the Framingham cohort and with interest in familiar aggregation and heritability, a new cohort consisting of the offspring of the original cohort was sampled. Spouses of offspring were also included. This new sample, began enrollment in 1971 and constituted a second generation of participants, permitting new assessment of risk factors and outcomes, and provided a resource for the genetic analyses which were yet to come. The Offspring participants have had repeated examinations, though at typically longer intervals than the original cohort. 

<u>Third Generation/Omni2/New Offspring Cohort:</u> Thirty-one years after enrollment began for the second generation of the Framingham Heart Study (Framingham Offspring Study), Framingham investigators began enrolling adults with at least one parent enrolled in the Offspring study into the Framingham Generation 3 cohort. The addition of the third generation was expected to facilitate investigation of secular trends in risk factors and indicators of health and disease within families, to enhance statistical power to detect genetic and environmental determinants of complex diseases, and to clarify how subclinical cardiovascular disease predicts occurrence of overt clinical events. 

**<u>Participants </u>**

<u>Original cohort</u>: At entry to the study in 1948-1952, the study recruited 5,209 men and women, ages 28-62 years, living in Framingham, MA. 

<u>Offspring/Omni1 cohort</u>: 5,124 men and women, ages 5-70 years at entry consisting of offspring of the original Framingham cohort (and spouses of the offspring). 

In 1994, the Omni Cohort 1 enrolled 507 men and women of African-American, Hispanic, Asian, Indian, Pacific Islander and Native American origins, who at the time of enrollment were residents of Framingham and the surrounding towns. 

<u>Third Generation/Omni2/New Offspring Cohort</u>: 4095 men and women, almost all who self reported their ethnicity as white, ages 19+ years at entry, with at least one parent in the Framingham Offspring study, participated in the Gen III cohort. 

The New Offspring Cohort enrolled spouses of Offspring participants that were not otherwise enrolled and had at least two biological children participating in Gen III. 103 New Offspring Spouses (47 men and 56 women) participated. The OMNI 2 cohort enrolled additional ethnically diverse participants, including many individuals related to the participants of Omni Cohort 1 and also individuals unrelated to Omni Cohort 1 members for a total of 410 new participants. 

**<u>Design </u>**

The cardiovascular disease conditions under investigation include coronary heart disease (angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, coronary insufficiency and sudden and non-sudden death), stroke, hypertension, peripheral arterial disease and congestive heart failure. 

<u>Original cohort</u>: The Framingham Study is a longitudinal investigation of constitutional and environmental factors influencing the development of CVD in men and women. Examination of participants has taken place every two years and the cohort has been followed for morbidity and mortality over that time period. 

<u>Offspring/Omni1 cohort</u>: By 1975, a sample of 5,124 men and women, consisting of offspring of the original Framingham cohort (and spouses of the offspring) had participated in the study. Additional studies of these subjects have continued under research contracts. 

<u>Third Generation/Omni2/New Offspring Cohort</u>: The children of Offspring Cohort participants were initially identified who would be 20 years of age or older by the end of the enrollment period. A higher priority for recruitment was assigned to individuals who belonged to large extended families, in order to complement phenotypic and genotypic information already obtained from prior generations. The baseline examination was begun in 2002 and completed in 2005.