The InterLACE study: Design, data harmonization and characteristics across 20 studies on women’s health
Gita D. Mishra
Hsin-Fang Chung
Nirmala Pandeya
Annette J. Dobson
Lee Jones
Nancy E. Avis
Sybil L. Crawford
Ellen B. Gold
Daniel R. Browne
Lynette L. Sievert
Eric Brunner
Janet E. Cade
Victoria J. Burley
Darren C. Greenwood
Graham G. Giles
Fiona Bruinsma
Alissa Goodman
Kunihiko Hayashi
Jung Su Lee
Hideki Mizunuma
Diana Kuhn
Rachel Cooper
Rebecca Hardy
Carla Makhlou
Carla Makhlouf Obermeyero
Kathryn A. Leep
Mette Kildevæld Simonsen
Toyoko Yoshizawa
Nancy F. Woods
Ellen S. Mitchell
Mark Hamer
Panayotes Demakakos
Sven Sandin
Hans-Olov Adami
Elisabete Weiderpass
Debra Anderson
2134/22287
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/The_InterLACE_study_Design_data_harmonization_and_characteristics_across_20_studies_on_women_s_health/9618770
Objectives
The International Collaboration for a Life Course Approach to Reproductive Health and Chronic Disease Events (InterLACE) project is a global research collaboration that aims to advance understanding of women’s reproductive health in relation to chronic disease risk by pooling individual participant data from several cohort and cross-sectional studies. The aim of this paper is to describe the characteristics of contributing studies and to present the distribution of demographic and reproductive factors and chronic disease outcomes in InterLACE.
Study design
InterLACE is an individual-level pooled study of 20 observational studies (12 of which are longitudinal) from ten countries. Variables were harmonized across studies to create a new and systematic synthesis of life-course data.
Main outcome measures
Harmonized data were derived in three domains: 1) socio-demographic and lifestyle factors, 2) female reproductive characteristics, and 3) chronic disease outcomes (cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes).
Results
InterLACE pooled data from 229,054 mid-aged women. Overall, 76% of the women were Caucasian and 22% Japanese; other ethnicities (of 300 or more participants) included Hispanic/Latin American (0.2%), Chinese (0.2%), Middle Eastern (0.3%), African/black (0.5%), and Other (1.0%). The median age at baseline was 47 years (Inter-quartile range (IQR): 41-53), and that at the last follow-up was 56 years (IQR: 48-64). Regarding reproductive characteristics, half of the women (49.8%) had their first menstruation (menarche) at 12-13 years of age. The distribution of menopausal status and the prevalence of chronic disease varied considerably among studies. At baseline, most women (57%) were pre- or peri-menopausal, 20% reported a natural menopause (range 0.8-55.6%) and the remainder had had surgery or were taking hormones. By the end of follow-up, the prevalence rates of CVD and diabetes were 7.2% (range 0.9-24.6%) and 5.1% (range 1.3-13.2%), respectively.
Conclusions
The scale and heterogeneity of InterLACE data provide an opportunity to strengthen evidence concerning the relationships between reproductive health through life and subsequent risks of chronic disease, including cross-cultural comparisons.
2016-08-18 14:36:27
Baseline characteristics
Reproductive health
Chronic disease
Life-course research
Cross-cultural comparison
Harmonization
Medical and Health Sciences not elsewhere classified