Multi-city Elderly Health Examination Cohort Study (MEHECS) in China

Multi-city Elderly Health Examination Cohort Study (MEHECS) is an ongoing multicenter multistage prospective cohort study in China with yearly data available between 2012 and 2023, aiming to provide a reliable source of Chinese elderly health data and detailed multidimensional information. This study correlated elderly health management data from the Basic Public Health Services Project in China with mortality registration data from the China Population Death Information Registration System. Participants were entitled to an annual free health examination which was structured into three components: a face-to-face questionnaire interview, a medical examination, and health assessment summary. The standardized questionnaire was used to obtain information on the elderly's personal information, lifestyles, current health problems, physical symptoms, healthcare utilization, current medications, and history of non-programmatic immunization. The medical examination covered general conditions, anthropometric measurements, physical examination, functional capacities, and auxiliary examinations. Since 2012, baseline data have been collected in 3,716,364 participants with a mean age of 70.9 years. The proportion of participants over 80 years old was 10.0%, and the proportion of men was 46.8%. By the end of 2023, a total of 412,869 death cases were identified during a median follow-up of 4.44 years. Baseline data collection and follow-up are ongoing. Research results are continuously produced, which can provide evidence to help policy-makers develop better policies to promote healthy aging in China.