Bernardo L Horta, Fernando Pires Hartwig, Mariane da S. Dias, Riceli Rodeghiero Oliveira, Natália P Lima, Janaina V dos S. Motta
In 1982, all maternity hospitals located in Pelotas, a southern Brazilian city, were visited daily and all hospital births (n = 7392) were identified. Those live births whose families lived in the urban area of the city (n = 5914) were examined, and their mothers were interviewed shortly after delivery and included in our original cohort. In 1982, hospital births accounted for ∼99.2% of all births in the city. The first cohort profile described how the original cohort had been followed up until the age of 23 years [1] and a later profile reported on the visit at 30 years of age [2]. In the previous visits, we collected information on several metabolic cardiovascular risk factors, early precursors of complex chronic diseases, mental health, human capital, and associated risk factors by using high-quality methods. By measuring several of these phenotypes near their peak, we can look back in time to understand their early determination and look forward to assess their long-term consequences for morbidity and mortality. Furthermore, these measurements at the phenotypic peak can serve as baseline measurements in the evaluation of the trajectory of functional phenotypes, enabling the identification of factors associated not only with reaching specific clinical threshold, but also with functional decline.