The women's health initiative: a potential resource for future studies of autoimmune diseases

The women's health initiative observational and clinical trials cohort is one of the largest and most carefully characterized group of postmenopausal women who have undergone long-term follow-up. Although outcome assessment has focused on the outcomes of CVD, cancer, and fractures, a wealth of data have been collected, which could form the basis for researchers interested in autoimmune diseases to begin important studies. Baseline and follow-up blood samples and DNA samples are available upon application to the study's Design and Analysis Committee and publications can be planned based on the current dataset upon application to the Publications and Presentations Committee. In both of these cases, one of the principal investigators from the 40 clinical centers or the Central Coordinating Center would need to be involved as a collaborator. Upon obtaining appropriate IRB approval, it could be possible to recontact women to collect additional information to verify outcomes or obtain further follow-up data. In addition to the WHI, the National Institutes of Health have funded a number of other large cohort studies that could be of use for researchers of autoimmune diseases. These include several longitudinal studies of diabetes funded by the NIDDK and several other large cardiovascular cohorts funded by the National Heart, Blood and Lung institute (e.g. ARIC, CARDIA and CHS. In addition, the national Cancer Institute has funded studies of large cohorts of Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians in the United States. In all these studies, individuals have undergone baseline assessment for environmental and lifestyle risk factors and are being followed for long-term health outcomes. Given the time and expense devoted to the Women's Health initiative and these other studies, it would be of great value if researchers interested in a wide variety of chronic diseases would make use of these rich sources of data.