Cohort Study

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Health and Prevenetion Enhancement(H-Peace) Study

Introduction to H-Peace study

The Health and Prevention Enhancement (H-PEACE) study was designed to investigate the association of diagnostic imaging results, biomarkers and the pre-disease stage of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as malignancies and metabolic diseases, in an average-risk population of Korea. The baseline and repeated information collected in the pre-disease stage of NCDs allows for evaluations of an individual’s potential NCD risk, which is necessary for establishing personalized prevention strategies. The H-PEACE study enrolled a large-scale retrospective cohort at the Healthcare System Gangnam Center, Seoul National University Hospital, from October 2003 to December 2014. A total of 91,336 health examinees were included in the cohort, and we repeatedly measured and collected information for 50.9% (N=46,484) of the cohort members. All participants completed structured questionnaires (lifestyle; medical history; mini-dietary assessment index; sex-specific variables; and psychiatric assessment), doctors’ physical examinations, laboratory blood and urine tests and digital chest X-ray imaging. For participants with available data, we also obtained information on specific diagnostic variables using advanced diagnostic tests, including coronary computed tomography (CT) for coronary calcium scores, colonoscopy, and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Furthermore, 17,455 of the participants who provided informed consent and donated blood samples were enrolled into the Gene-environmental interaction and phenotype (GENIE) cohort from October 2013, and we analyzed genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array data for 6,579 of these blood samples. The cohort aimed to facilitate advanced and accurate diagnostic techniques related to NCDs while considering various phenotypes. Potential collaborators can access the dataset after receiving approval from our institutional review board. Applications can be submitted on the study homepage (http://healthcare.snuh.org/HPEACEstudy)..

Key Messages

l The Health and Prevention Enhancement (H-PEACE) study includes a large sample size for the healthy subjects (N=91,336 health examinees) with sophisticated tests to investigate its clinical effectiveness for pre-disease stage of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including malignancy and metabolic disease in an average-risk population of Korea.

l This cohort can provide a comprehensive database of biomarkers related to NCDs, including cancer antigen and infection markers. Furthermore, lifestyle, medical history, environmental factors and individual genetic information, which are all necessary to understand pre-clinical stage of NCD and to prevent progressions from pre-clinical conditions to clinical NCDs.

l The repeated measurements of comprehensive information ranging from the results of high-quality and advanced diagnostic techniques in clinical settings to SNP data from genome-wide association analyses. Furthermore, standardized active and passive follow-up protocols are the important strength of this study.

Study flow diagram of the Health and Prevention Enhancement (H-PEACE) study study