Joondalup Family Health Study
The Joondalup Family Health Study will be the most extensively characterized, community-based cohort study ever undertaken and will dramatically enhance Australian research capacities and competitiveness across many different disciplines. The Joondalup Family Health Study would build on the experience of a number of previous large cohort studies, including the Busselton Health Study, the Health-in-Men Study, and the Raine Cohort Study. The planned study will have a strong focus on families and the health of both children and adults, and will seek to collect extensive data from up to 80,000 volunteers living in the City of Joondalup every 3 years.
The Study aims to investigate the complex interplay of environmental, lifestyle and genetic components that affect the risk of common conditions such as asthma, heart disease and diabetes in both adults and children. Detailed data regarding lifestyle and diet, together with measures relevant to lung function, cardiovascular function, immune function, eye disease, hearing loss, mental health, and many other measures will be collected from volunteer participants. Individuals who volunteer to participate in the Study would also be asked for consent for a blood sample to be taken. The blood samples will be stored so that they can be used for biochemical and genetic analysis in the future.
The Study is being planned by a team of medical researchers from the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research, The University of Western Australia, Edith Cowan University Joondalup Campus, Lions Eye Institute, Lions Ear and Hearing Institute, Princess Margaret Hospital, the Women & Infants Research Foundation, the Joondalup Health Campus, and other academic, government and hospital partners.
Website: The Joondalup Family Health Study
http://www.jfhs.org.au
Goals/Deliverables
The Joondalup Family Health Study would
contribute to improved health outcomes in Australia by
enabling and encouraging:
1. The
study of complex interactions between genetic and
environmental risks to enable the causal pathways to these
disorders to be elucidated and the most effective
preventive strategies to be developed;
2. Evaluating the effects of new aspects
of clinical and preventive care;
3. Monitoring of disease incidence in
relation to changes in environmental and other factors in
an entire community;
4. The use of genetic, family and
epidemiological data to develop new technologies and
treatments; and
5. Providing data to guide decision making
in health services (especially important given the current
national debates about effective resource allocation).
What is the benefit to Australia?
The most important benefits of this Study
may only be realised many years from now and may largely
benefit subsequent generations. The Study will help us
learn more about environment, lifestyle and other factors
that may lead to the diseases affecting the lives of a
large proportion of our society - such as cancer, asthma,
heart disease and diabetes. As yet, many of these diseases
are at best manageable, not curable. The study results can
eventually contribute to the development of public health
interventions and improved medicines for the benefit of all
Australians.
Contact Information
Professor Lyle Palmer – Scientific
Director
Laboratory for Genetic
Epidemiology
Western Australian Institute for Medical Research
SCGH Campus
Ground Floor, B Block
QE-II Medical Centre
Hospital Avenue, Nedlands Western Australia 6009
AUSTRALIA
Email: queries@jfhs.org.au
Phone: 1800 783 110 or (08) 9346 7216
Fax: (08) 9346 1818
URL: http://www.jfhs.org.au
