THE AMSTERDAM GROWTH AND HEALTH LONGITUDINAL-STUDY - THE PAST (1976-1996) AND FUTURE (1997-)

This article presents an overview of the Amsterdam Growth and Health L ongitudinal Study (AGAHLS). This study was started in the 1970s, follo wing a whole sample of 500 healthy 13-year-old boys and girls from two secondary schools. During the school period (12-17 years) annual meas urements were performed with respect to anthropometrics, physiological and psychological parameters, lifestyle characteristics (activity, di et, smoking) and health parameters. A multiple longitudinal design was applied with overlapping birth cohorts and a cross-sectional measured control group to monitor for confounding factors such as time of meas urement, cohort, dropout and testing effects. Emphasis is also placed on measures that enhance adherence of the subjects. The follow-up was extended with repeated measurements at age 21, 26 and 28. This enabled us to analyze the data with respect to tracking characteristics of bi ological and lifestyle variables over a period of 15 years between ado lescence and adulthood and also to investigate quasi-causal relationsh ips between the effects of a healthy lifestyle and indicators for card iovascular diseases (CVD). Also new methods such as measurement of ath erosclerosis and osteoporosis will be added and related to longitudina l measurements of the same subjects in the past. The main results that were obtained in the past are summarized and research questions for t he near future are explained.