New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Zayed Military Hospital, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
BMC Public Health. 2018 Jan 5;18(1):101. doi: 10.1186/s12889-017-5012-2.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is faced with a rapidly increasing burden of non-communicable diseases including obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The UAE Healthy Future study is a prospective cohort designed to identify associations between risk factors and these diseases amongst Emiratis. The study will enroll 20,000 UAE nationals aged ≥18 years. Environmental and genetic risk factors will be characterized and participants will be followed for future disease events. As this was the first time a prospective cohort study was being planned in the UAE, a pilot study was conducted in 2015 with the primary aim of establishing the feasibility of conducting the study. Other objectives were to evaluate the implementation of the main study protocols, and to build adequate capacity to conduct advanced clinical laboratory analyses.
Seven hundred sixty nine UAE nationals aged ≥18 years were invited to participate voluntarily in the pilot study. Participants signed an informed consent, completed a detailed questionnaire, provided random blood, urine, and mouthwash samples and were assessed for a series of clinical measures. All specimens were transported to the New York University Abu Dhabi laboratories where samples were processed and analyzed for routine chemistry and hematology. Plasma, serum, and a small whole blood sample for DNA extraction were aliquoted and stored at -80 °C for future analyses.
Overall, 517 Emirati men and women agreed to participate (68% response rate). Of the total participants, 495 (95.0%), 430 (82.2%), and 492 (94.4%), completed the questionnaire, physical measurements, and provided biological samples, respectively.
The pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of recruitment and completion of the study protocols for the first large-scale cohort study designed to identify emerging risk factors for the major non-communicable diseases in the region.
阿拉伯联合酋长国（阿联酋）面临着非传染性疾病负担迅速增加的问题，包括肥胖、糖尿病和心血管疾病。阿联酋健康未来研究是一项前瞻性队列研究，旨在确定风险因素与阿联酋人这些疾病之间的关联。该研究将招募 20,000 名年龄在 18 岁及以上的阿联酋国民。将对环境和遗传风险因素进行特征描述，并对参与者进行随访以了解未来的疾病事件。由于这是在阿联酋首次计划进行前瞻性队列研究，因此于 2015 年进行了一项试点研究，主要目的是确定开展该研究的可行性。其他目标是评估主要研究方案的实施情况，并建立足够的能力来进行先进的临床实验室分析。
邀请了 769 名年龄在 18 岁及以上的阿联酋国民自愿参加试点研究。参与者签署了知情同意书，完成了详细的问卷调查，提供了随机的血液、尿液和漱口水样本，并接受了一系列临床检查。所有标本均被送往纽约大学阿布扎比分校实验室，在那里对样本进行了常规化学和血液学分析。将血浆、血清和一小部分全血样本用于 DNA 提取，并分装后储存在-80°C，以备将来分析。
共有 517 名阿联酋男女同意参与（响应率为 68%）。在总参与者中，分别有 495 人（95.0%）、430 人（82.2%）和 492 人（94.4%）完成了问卷、体格测量和提供生物样本。
试点研究表明，招募和完成该研究方案是可行的，这是为确定该地区主要非传染性疾病新出现的风险因素而设计的第一个大规模队列研究。
