Study questionnaires
All persons enrolled in PMRP are asked to fill out a questionnaire that requests data on race/ethnicity, education, smoking, alcohol use, family history of chronic disease, and employment.
Participants are also asked to complete self-administered food frequency and physical activity questionnaires. The percentage of participants who have completed these questionnaires is approximately 68%.
The food frequency questionnaire selected for use in the PMRP is the Diet History Questionnaire, developed by researchers at the National Cancer Institute. It requests data on consumption of 124 separate food items, portion sizes, and nutrient supplement intake. Diet*Calc software, also available from the National Cancer Institute, is used to generate nutrient and food group estimates from data provided in the completed Diet History Questionnaires.
Based on data collected from the Diet History Questionnaire, a paper has been published describing dietary intake, including use of dietary supplements, in the Personalized Medicine Research Project:
Strobush L, Berg R, Cross D, Foth W, Kitchner T, Coleman L, McCarty CA. Dietary intake in the Personalized Medicine Research Project: a resource for studies of gene-diet interaction. NUTR J 2011;10:13.
PubMed ID: 21276236
The physical activity questionnaire used in the PMRP is the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC)/Baecke Questionnaire. It is a modified version of the original Baecke Questionnaire:
Baecke JA, Burema J, Frijters JE. A short questionnaire for the measurement of habitual physical activity in epidemiological studies. AM J CLIN NUTR 1982;36:936-42.
PubMed ID: 7137077
The modified version comprises 16 questions about physical activity at work, while playing sports, and during leisure time. The modified questionnaire has previously been validated with physiological methods.
Richardson MT, Ainsworth BE, Wu CH, Jacobs DR Jr, Leon AS. Ability of the Atherosclerosis Risk In Communitites (ARIC)/Baecke Questionnaire to assess leisure-time physical activity. INT J EPIDEMIOL 1995;24:685-93.
PubMed ID: 8550264
Biological data and samples
Height and weight are measured at enrollment in the PMRP.
Blood is also drawn from participants for extraction of DNA and processing of serum and plasma. The blood is processed within 24 hours of collection and the DNA, serum, and plasma are stored at -80oC. Participants are not required to fast before their blood is drawn but they are asked to provide the time since their last meal.
Genotype data for 51 single nucleotide polymorphisms are available for 19,544 PMRP participants. The polymorphisms are listed in the file below.
Allele frequencies for these polymorphisms in PMRP participants have been described in the following reference:
Cross DS, Ivacic LC, Stefanski EL, McCarty CA. Population based allele frequencies of disease associated polymorphisms in the Personalized Medicine Research Project. BMC GENET 2010;11:51.
PubMed ID: 20565774
Medical record data
Electronic medical record data are available for all PMRP participants. These data have been collected during the course of clinical care and, from 1985 onwards, include laboratory observations. For some participants, blood pressure, weight and other laboratory measurements may be available longitudinally over the course of many years.