Design of the 18-year follow-up of the Danish COPSAC2000 birth cohort.

Abstract

Background: Atopic diseases, obesity and neuropsychiatric disorders are lifestyle-related and environmental-related chronic inflammatory disorders, and the incidences have increased in the last years.

Objective: To outline the design of the 18-year follow-up of the Copenhagen Prospective Study on Asthma in Childhood (COPSAC₂₀₀₀) birth cohort, where risk factors of atopic diseases, obesity and neuropsychiatric disorders are identified through extensive characterisation of the environment, along with deep clinical phenotyping and biosampling for omics profiling.

Methods: COPSAC₂₀₀₀ is a Danish prospective clinical birth cohort study of 411 children born to mothers with asthma who were enrolled at 1 month of age and closely followed at the COPSAC clinical research unit through childhood for the development of atopic diseases. At the 18-year follow-up visit, biomaterial (hair, blood, urine, faeces, throat, and skin swabs, nasal lining fluid and scraping, and hypopharyngeal aspirates) and extensive information on environmental exposures and risk behaviours were collected along with deep metabolic characterisation and multiorgan investigations including anthropometrics, heart, lungs, kidneys, intestines, bones, muscles and skin. Neuropsychiatric diagnoses were captured from medical records and registers accompanied by electronic questionnaires on behavioural traits and psychopathology.

Results: A total of 370 (90%) of the 411 cohort participants completed the 18-year visit. Of these, 25.1% had asthma, 23.4% had a body mass index >25 kg/m² and 16.8% had a psychiatric diagnosis in childhood. A total of 68.7% drank alcohol monthly, and when drinking, 22.2% drank >10 units. Of the participants, 31.4% were currently smoking, and of these, 24.1% smoked daily. A total of 23.8% had tried taking drugs, and 19.7% reported having done self-destructive behaviour. The mean screen time per day was 6.0 hours.

Conclusion: This huge dataset on health and habits, exposures, metabolism, multiorgan assessments and biosamples from COPSAC₂₀₀₀ by age 18 provides a unique opportunity to explore risk factors and underlying mechanisms of atopic disease and other lifestyle-related, non-communicable diseases such as obesity and neuropsychiatric disorders, which are highly prevalent in the community and our cohort.