The Physical Activity and Nutrition in Children (PANIC) Study is a long-term controlled exercise and diet intervention study in a population sample of primary school children from the city of Kuopio, Finland. All children were born between February 1999 and December 2002. Altogether 512 children 6-8 years of age participated in the baseline study in 2007-2009. We allocated the children into the intervention group and control group. Children and their parents in the intervention group received intensive physical activity and diet counseling for two years and children and their parents in the control group did not receive lifestyle counseling. Altogether 440 (86%) children participated also in the 2-year follow-up study in 2009-2011, when we performed the same thorough assessments as in the baseline study. Thereafter, a less intensive intervention will continue until adulthood. The children will be re-examined in adolescence and early adulthood. This study is designed to identify risk factors and risk groups for chronic diseases already in early childhood and to study the effects of physical activity, diet and genetic factors on health and wellbeing among children and adolescents. The study has been described previously in detail (http://www.uef.fi/en/biolaaketiede/lasten-liikunta-ja-ravitsemus) (43). Comprehensive and detailed assessments were performed using physical examinations, advanced techniques, biological samples and questionnaires (http://www.uef.fi/en/biolaaketiede/lasten-liikunta-ja-ravitsemus). The study has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Hospital District of Northern Savo in 2006. The written informed consent was obtained from children and their parent(s). Analyses were restricted to individuals of European ethnic origin with genome-wide data and the BMI measurement measured at the latest time point between 6 and 10 years of age was used in the analyses. The number of children was 423 (number of boys 213 (50.4%)) in the
USA. Genotype imputation was performed using IMPUTE2 and a reference panel from the 1000 Genomes. The study was approved by the Joint Commission on Ethics of the Turku University and the Turku University Central Hospital. Informed consent was obtained from all parents at the beginning of the trial and from the children at 15 years of age. Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (YFS) YFS is a large prospective population-based multicentre study aimed at examining the risk factors and their determinants in children and adolescents of risk factors for atherosclerosis. The baseline cross-sectional study was carried out in 1980, including 3596 subjects at ages 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18. Between 1980 and 1992, these subjects were followed up at 3-year intervals, and then as adults in 2001, 2007 and 2010-2012. The main aim of the YFS is to determine the contribution made by childhood lifestyle, biological and psychological measures to the risk of cardiovascular diseases in adulthood. Genotyping was performed with the Illumina 670K SNP chip at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Centre. Genotype imputation was performed using MACH 1.0 and HapMap II CEU (release 22) samples. Quality control measures were taken prior to imputation (excluding genotypes with call rate <0.95, MAF <0.01, HWE P-value <1 x 10-6). All subjects gave their written informed consent in 2007 and the study was approved by local ethics committees of the participating universities. References