Research Unit Epidemiology of Chronic Diseases
Head: Annette Peters
Aim of the Research Unit
It is our goal to identify factors determining the early onset of diabetes and myocardial infarction as well as quality of life and multi-morbidity at older ages. In the past, we have contributed to identifying risk factors such as overweight, high blood pressure or impairment of the fatty acid metabolism based on the KORA Studies conducted in Augsburg.
Currently, we focus on the following questions:
- Which profiles of classical risk factors and new blood biomarkers determine early onset of myocardial infarction and diabetes mellitus?
- What role plays genetic susceptibility relative to life-style related factors?
- Is there an interplay of psychosocial factors with new (inflammatory) blood biomarkers?
- Does depressed mood relative to classical risk factors contribute to the onset of myocardial infarction and diabetes mellitus?
- Can we identify gender-specific risk factor profiles of myocardial infarction and diabetes mellitus?
Projects (Overview):
Myocardial infarctions and Diabetes:
- Registry of Acute Myocardial Infarction (Herzinfarktregister)
- KORA-Study F4 (2006/2008): Follow-up examination of the KORA survey S4, identification of risk factors for early disease stages
- KORA-Survey 2000 S4 (1999/2001): Substudy on cardiovascular risk factors and chronic diseases
- MONICA/KORA Cohort Study S1, S2, S3
- KORA-Study F3 (2004/2005): Substudy on trends of cardiovascular risk factors and the identification of new risk factors for chronic diseases
- Family study on genetics of type 2 diabetes mellitus
- MORGAM Project: A multinational collaborative study
Subclinical Inflammation and Gene-Environment Interactions:
- Inflammation and endothelial dysfunction as determinants of incident type 2 diabetes mellitus and myocardial infarction
- Inflammation and endothelial dysfunction as a common cause underlying diabetes type 2 and myocardial infarction. Role of intermediate phenotypes and genetic variants
- Replication of results from 500K GWA studies of inflammatory markers and evaluation of a 50K vascular disease SNP array in the large MONICA/KORA case-cohort study
Mental Health:
- S1-S3 Mild Affective Impairment and Psychosocial Stress Precursor Study
- Cologne Smoking Study (CoSmoS)
- Prevalence of Atrial Fibrillation (KORA-AF-Event) within the AF competence network
- Nicotine addiction. Molecular and Physiological Effects in Central Nervous System (CNS)
- F3-Depression screening and phenotype substudy
- F4-Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and General Anxiety substudy
- Suicide Epidemiology and Prevention Study
- LICAD: Living with an Implanted Cardioverter Defibrillator Study
- Munich Examination of Delay in Patients Experiencing Acute Myocardial Infarction (MEDEA) Study
- Atrial Fibrillation Quality-of-Life studies (within the AF competence network)
Aging:
- KORA-AGE: Long-term determinants and consequences of multi-morbidity
