Danish National Birth Cohort

Diseases such as cardiovascular morbidity, cancer, mental illnesses, asthma and allergy may all have component causes that act early in life. The Danish National Birth Cohort (Better health in generations) was established to investigate the causal link between exposures in early life and disease later on and the possibilities for disease prevention.

Data and biological samples

In the DNBC initial data collection information was collected by computer-assisted telephone interviews with the women twice during pregnancy and when their children were six and 18 months old. Participants were also asked to fill in a self-administered food frequency questionnaire in mid-pregnancy. Furthermore, a biological bank was set up with blood taken from the mother twice during pregnancy and blood from the umbilical cord taken shortly after birth. Data collection started in 1996 and the project covered all regions in Denmark in 1999. By August 2000, a total of 60,000 pregnant women had been recruited to the study. In October 2002, we reached our goal of 100.000 recruitments.

Data collection expanded

The cohort has expanded its initial data collection with several later data sweeps. Please look go to www.dnbc.dk for a full overview of the DNBC data collections and the conditions for access to data.