This node joins those launched in Tenerife and Gran Canaria within the framework of national epidemiological research to understand the role of social, environmental and biological determinants of health on the origin of the main diseases and health problems in Spain.
The Canarian Health Service participates in this project that will allow 12,000 people, selected at random, residing in the municipalities of Telde, La Laguna and La Palma to remain under follow-up for twenty years.
In total, the project will include the monitoring of 200,000 people from all over Spain between 16 and 79 years old.
The Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, through the Canary Islands Health Service and the Canary Islands Health Research Institute Foundation (FIISC), has begun contacting and collecting information from the first people participating in the IMPaCT Cohort project. in the La Palma node, located in the Specialized Care Center (CAE) of Los Llanos de Aridane.
The Canary Islands have three nodes, located in Tenerife, Gran Canaria and La Palma, to participate in this national epidemiological research that will explore the psychological, social, environmental and biological determinants of the health conditions and diseases of greatest importance in Spain.
The study is promoted by the Precision Medicine Infrastructure associated with Science and Technology (IMPaCT) created by the Carlos III Health Institute to facilitate the deployment of precision medicine in the National Health System.
The research, coordinated by the Networked Biomedical Research Center (CIBER), has the participation of all the autonomous communities, the National Institute of Statistics (INE), and 59 research groups and 24 associated entities.
12,000 people in the Canary Islands
In the Canary Islands, 12,000 people between 16 and 79 years old will participate, and their health status will be monitored for twenty years. In total in Spain, 200,000 people of that age group will be included in the project.
In the case of the Canary Islands, there are three nodes. In each of them, 4,000 people, between 16 and 79 years old, are being randomly selected. The first two are located at the La Laguna-Universidad Health Center, in La Laguna, and at the San Juan Health Center, in Telde, respectively. In these nodes, progress is already being made in the next phase of the project, with sampling including more than 160 people in Tenerife and more than eighty in Gran Canaria, and sending biological samples to the national biobank.
Now the activity begins in the third node, located in the CAE of Los Llanos de Aridane, although a selection of users will also be made from the basic health areas of El Paso, Las Breñas, Santa Cruz de La Palma, Tazacorte and Tijarafe .
Under the motto ‘If they call you, come!’, the contact phase begins with the selected people, who will be invited to participate in the study.
Follow-up for twenty years
The IMPaCT Cohort will follow up each participant over twenty years and, to establish the study variables, there have been nearly seventy researchers specializing in different subjects.
The research will be carried out in fifty primary care health centers (IMPaCT centers) belonging to the health services of the seventeen autonomous communities and Ceuta and Melilla, in which recruitment, information collection and periodic contact with the participants.
The study has been designed so that its 200,000 participants are a representative sample of the Spanish population. Participants are chosen at random from people aged 16 to 79 who reside in Spain with public health coverage and whose care is provided by public health service centers.
At the beginning of their participation and once every five years, they will undergo a complete physical examination, answer a detailed health questionnaire, and have biological samples taken. In addition, more frequent follow-up contacts will be made by phone or with computer applications. All this information will be completed with what is available in clinical or statistical databases.
The IMPaCT Cohort will allow us to understand the role of social, environmental and biological determinants of health on the origin of the main diseases and health problems in Spain. The information collected in the IMPaCT Cohort will be made available to the scientific community to develop research projects of interest to society.
Researchers
In the Canary Islands, a working group composed of professionals and researchers has been established, who have formed an Autonomous Committee of the IMPACT Cohort project. This body, which has the collaboration and support of the Primary Care Management, hospital laboratories, Research Units and the FIISC, will be in charge of the implementation of this project in the archipelago.
Research objective
The primary objectives of this study seek to improve understanding of the causes of diseases and health conditions that are priority public health, including age-related functional decline, injury, and disability; monitor the health status of residents in Spain, with special attention to health inequalities; predict the risk of disease and other health conditions, including age-related functional decline, injury and disability; and identify biomarkers of subclinical or early-stage disease, as well as biomarkers of specific phenotypes of potential use in clinical practice (precision clinical medicine).
In Spain, cohort projects have already been developed, the results of which are helping to design public health and disease prevention policies. However, this is the first time that a study has been launched in which all autonomous communities and cities are represented, with a common protocol for sample collection, questionnaires and physical examination to create a research infrastructure for the group of people. the country’s scientific community.