Pars cohort study of non-communicable diseases in Iran: protocol and preliminary results
Abdullah Gandomkar1, Hossein Poustchi2, Maryam Moini3
1Non-Communicable Disease Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Objectives:
The pars cohort study (PCS) is a 10-year cohort study aiming to investigate the burden and the major risk factors of non-communicable diseases, and to establish a setting to launch interventions for prevention of these diseases and controlling their risk factors.
Methods:
All inhabitants of Valashahr district in South of Iran, aged 40-75 years, were invited to undergo interviews and physical examination, and to provide biological samples. A total of 9264 invitees accepted to participate in the study (95 % participation rate) and were recruited from 2012 to 2014. Active follow-up was also carried out after 12 months.
Results:
About 46 % of participants were male and 54 % were female. About 14.0 % of the participants were current smokers and 8.4 % were ever opium users. The prevalence of overweight and obesity were 37.3 and 18.2 %, respectively. The prevalence of hypertension was 26.9 %. A total of 49 participants died during a median follow-up of one year.
Conclusions:
PCS with its large scale and wealth of socio-economic and medical data can be a unique platform for studying the etiology of non-communicable diseases and effective interventions in Iran.
