Ontario embarks on long term health study.
Dr. Brent Zanke is a clinician-scientist whose current research interests include the genetic profiling of tumour and control tissue samples to identify markers of disease.
Eddie Rwema
The largest community-based health study ever conducted in
Ontario is underway and area healthcare providers are looking for volunteers.
The Ontario Health Study is a long-term project that aims to help scientists understand
the causes, prevention and treatment of diseases such as cancer, heart disease,
asthma, and diabetes.
“With this study we have an opportunity of creating a
program that is going to provide the next generation of medical discoveries,”
said Dr. Brent Zanke, a researcher at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.
The study began with an initial phase in which more than
8,000 adults living in Ontario took part. The main phase of the study is now
open to all residents of Ontario who are at least 18 years old.
The study participants will be followed for their entire
lifespan with a view of allowing researchers to see how environment, lifestyle
and genes affect the risk of common diseases.
“We are going to be registering as many people as possible
in Ontario, and take a representative sample with an idea of following up with these
people for their whole lives,” said Zanke.
About 100,000 volunteers will be asked to visit a health
clinic for extensive measurements of a variety of health factors, such as
vision, hearing, lung function and blood sugar levels.
“With the sampling of their DNA, we will be able to relate what
diseases or conditions they might have in relation to what environmental
exposure they might have,” Zanke said. “That will then produce medical insights
that would otherwise not be there.”
In Ottawa, the recruitment drive is being advertised on OC
Transpo buses, about 750 posters are going up around the city and the project
is being promoted on Facebook and on Twitter.
Large businesses and unions are also being asked to get
their workers and members involved.
“You need everybody, you need people that work in every sort
of spectrum of society in every age group because then you get an accurate sort
of snapshot,” said Zanke.
He compared the study’s ambition with a similar project
started in 1948, called the Framingham Heart Study, which identified the risk
factors for heart disease.
Those factors were determined through a similar population
study using a small suburb in Boston, where the area’s entire population was
enrolled and their personal habits (such as smoking and drinking alcohol) and
health factors catalogued.
For those who get involved in the Ontario study, Zanke said they could
potentially occupy a similar place in history.
“They are contributing to the body of knowledge that is
going to help the next generation of people to understand their diseases and
derive great treatment from it,” said Zanke.
Of the 13 million people in Ontario, about 9.5 million
adults qualify. Planners hope at least 20 per cent will register. Nearly all
universities and teaching hospitals have endorsed the study.
Medical researchers at universities, research institutes and
hospitals across Ontario are conducting this study. The governments of Ontario
and Canada are funding the Study.
For more information visit: www.ontariohealthstudy.ca