Information for the Press
KORA: Health Research with an international reputation in the region of Augsburg
KORA, a Cooperative Health Research in the region of Augsburg, stands for a nationally and internationally used research platform. There is an enormous pool of patient data that scientists can use for researching various aspects of environmental diseases from an epidemiological, genetic, and health economical viewpoint.
Subjects are residents from the region of Augsburg who participate voluntarily. Thus it was possible to examine and interview around 18,000 persons over the last 20 years at 5 years’ intervals and to identify individual risk factors, as for example, environmental burdens, life style, or genetic factors.
The main research interest always was in cardiovascular diseases but in the meantime one has also started to investigate type-2 diabetes, the metabolic syndrome, allergies, and further chronic disease issues. In particular, genetic research has benefited considerably from the KORA data base.
At the same time a myocardial infarction registry was established where every fatal or non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI) in persons from 25 to 75 years has been registered. A multitude of further studies has been added. The result is a comprehensive data base with blood samples and a unique compilation of diagnostic findings and histories of illness.
For infrastructure, conception, organization and the implementation of the studies scientists of the Institute of Epidemiology (Homepage) and the Institute of Health Economics and Health Care Management (Homepage) at the Helmholtz Zentrum München are responsible.