Yifei Lin, Yong Yang, Zhuyue Li, Liang Du, Rui Shi, Qingke Shi, Xueru Xu, Geng Yin, Fan Zhang, Wenxia Huang, Yan Huang, Ga Liao, Qilin Liu, Weimin Li, Huan Song, Jin Huang
{"title":"Cohort profile: the West-China hospital alliance longitudinal epidemiology wellness (WHALE) study.","authors":"Yifei Lin, Yong Yang, Zhuyue Li, Liang Du, Rui Shi, Qingke Shi, Xueru Xu, Geng Yin, Fan Zhang, Wenxia Huang, Yan Huang, Ga Liao, Qilin Liu, Weimin Li, Huan Song, Jin Huang","doi":"10.1007/s10654-025-01290-1","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The West-China Hospital Alliance Longitudinal Epidemiology Wellness (WHALE) Study establishes a robust, multidimensional database to provide comprehensive insights into health-to-disease transitions, advancing proactive healthcare and enhancing understanding of the interplay among genetic, behavioral, and environmental factors in disease. The WHALE Study includes a database and a cohort. The WHALE Database, established in 2010, integrates health check-up data from 11 hospitals, covering sociodemographic, lifestyle, medical history, and clinical data. The WHALE Health Trajectory Cohort, launched in November 2024, recruits adults with at least three health check-ups, featuring biennial active follow-ups and passive linkage with regional healthcare databases. As of January 2025, the WHALE Database includes over 3.4 million health records from 1,526,686 participants, with a mean age of 40.3 years and a balanced gender distribution. Notably, 23.88% of participants had at least three health check-ups, and 3.31% had more than ten, highlighting a significant proportion with repeated measurements. The study provides key insights into health trajectories by examining the associations of biomarker data and their trajectory patterns with aging, pre-disease conditions, and disease diagnoses. The strengths of the WHALE Study include its large sample size, longitudinal design, diverse representation, comprehensive data, and robust quality control. Limitations include potential selection bias, data variability across centers, and reliance on self-reported data for some variables.</p>","PeriodicalId":11907,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Epidemiology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Journal of Epidemiology","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-025-01290-1","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The West-China Hospital Alliance Longitudinal Epidemiology Wellness (WHALE) Study establishes a robust, multidimensional database to provide comprehensive insights into health-to-disease transitions, advancing proactive healthcare and enhancing understanding of the interplay among genetic, behavioral, and environmental factors in disease. The WHALE Study includes a database and a cohort. The WHALE Database, established in 2010, integrates health check-up data from 11 hospitals, covering sociodemographic, lifestyle, medical history, and clinical data. The WHALE Health Trajectory Cohort, launched in November 2024, recruits adults with at least three health check-ups, featuring biennial active follow-ups and passive linkage with regional healthcare databases. As of January 2025, the WHALE Database includes over 3.4 million health records from 1,526,686 participants, with a mean age of 40.3 years and a balanced gender distribution. Notably, 23.88% of participants had at least three health check-ups, and 3.31% had more than ten, highlighting a significant proportion with repeated measurements. The study provides key insights into health trajectories by examining the associations of biomarker data and their trajectory patterns with aging, pre-disease conditions, and disease diagnoses. The strengths of the WHALE Study include its large sample size, longitudinal design, diverse representation, comprehensive data, and robust quality control. Limitations include potential selection bias, data variability across centers, and reliance on self-reported data for some variables.
期刊介绍:
The European Journal of Epidemiology, established in 1985, is a peer-reviewed publication that provides a platform for discussions on epidemiology in its broadest sense. It covers various aspects of epidemiologic research and statistical methods. The journal facilitates communication between researchers, educators, and practitioners in epidemiology, including those in clinical and community medicine. Contributions from diverse fields such as public health, preventive medicine, clinical medicine, health economics, and computational biology and data science, in relation to health and disease, are encouraged. While accepting submissions from all over the world, the journal particularly emphasizes European topics relevant to epidemiology. The published articles consist of empirical research findings, developments in methodology, and opinion pieces.