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Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC-BioLINCC)

Data Access NOTE:

Please refer to the “Authorized Access” section below for information about how access to the data from this accession differs from many other dbGaP accessions. At present, the ARIC sIRB has determined that ARIC data cannot be shared with for-profit entities.

Related Studies

Other ARIC data available include: Imaging studies (ARIC-Imaging), Genetics and genomics (ARIC, phs000280.v8.p2), Collaborative Cohort of Cohorts for COVID-19 Research (C4R): ARIC (phs002988.v1.p1), and as a component of the Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS-BioLINCC, phs003637.v1.p1).

Available Data

Data available for request include ARIC v1-v8 examination cycles, collated annual follow-up communication data for contact years 2-32, and follow-up for mortality, heart disease, and stroke events through 2019. Also included are data from ancillary studies.

Objectives

The objectives of ARIC are to: 1) investigate associations of factors, including those not previously measured in cohort studies, with prevalence of atherosclerosis and incidence of CHD, clinical stroke and other cardiovascular diseases; and 2) measure cardiovascular disease occurrence and trends and relate these to community levels of, and changes in, risk factors, medical care and atherosclerosis.

Background

At the time of project initiation, the NHLBI had long recognized the need for longitudinal studies to identify the biochemical and physiological markers and specific environmental factors which place individuals at high risk for the major atherosclerosis diseases. The development of reliable ultrasound examination of peripheral arteries enhanced the expected benefit of such studies. Community surveillance planning began for ARIC in response to recommendations of the 1978 NHLBI Workshop on the Decline in CHD Mortality and has been extended in its purpose to evaluate the large geographic differences in U.S. mortality.

Participants

Black and white men and women, age 45-64 at entry; sample size: 15,792.

Design

ARIC is a large-scale, long-term prospective study that measures associations of established and suspected coronary heart disease risk factors with both atherosclerosis and new CHD events in men and women from four geographically diverse communities. The project has two components: community surveillance of morbidity and mortality; and repeated examinations of a representative cohort of men and women in each community. The community surveillance involves abstracting hospital records and death certificates and investigating out-of-hospital deaths. The representative cohorts include approximately 4,000 persons from each community.

Community surveillance data includes detailed hospital record abstraction, ECG tracings, and event adjudication. Data from out-of-hospital events in the community include physician, informant, and coroner questionnaires as well as death certificate data and event adjudication. Community surveillance ended in 2014.

Cohort participants were examined four times at three year intervals between 1987 and 1998, and have been continuously contacted annually to update their medical histories. Atherosclerosis was measured by carotid ultrasonography. Risk factors studied include: blood lipids, lipoprotein cholesterols, and apolipoproteins; plasma hemostatic factors; blood chemistries and hematology; sitting, supine and standing blood pressures; anthropometry; fasting blood glucose and insulin levels; ECG findings; cigarette and alcohol use; physical activity levels; dietary aspects; and family history. Clinic visits were restarted in 2011 with ARIC visit 5.