Danish Life Course Cohort Study (DANLIFE)

Description

The life-course approach to studying psychosocial predictors of health is gaining more attention, but prospective life-course studies such as the well-known British birth cohorts encounter two basic methodological problems. They often do not have sufficient statistical power to address timing and accumulation of multiple psychosocial factors over the life course. They also encounter massive problems related to non-response and missing data. We have established a nationwide register-based life course cohort study (DANLIFE) based on comprehensive and continuously updated information on social adversity and major life events from the Danish registers. These unique data from a large unselected population provides an unprecedented resource for testing life-course mechanisms such as accumulation of various stress factors across the life span and sensitive periods. The DANLIFE cohort includes all people born in Denmark from 1980 and onwards, totaling approx. 2 million people followed from birth and up till 35 years of age.

Data

We have linked data from the Danish nationwide registers. Every Danish citizen is given a unique 10-digit personal identification number at birth, which permits exact linkage between information from administrative and research registries in Denmark. The personal identification number also provides an exceptional possibility to follow individuals longitudinally over time.

Contact person: Naja Hulvej Rod (nahuro@sund.ku.dk)