Optimizing research on the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) involves implementing initiatives maximizing the use of the available cohort study data; achieving sufficient statistical power to support subgroup analysis; and using participant data presenting adequate follow-up and exposure heterogeneity. It also involves being able to undertake comparison, cross-validation, or replication across data sets. To answer these requirements, cohort study data need to be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR), and more particularly, it often needs to be harmonized. Harmonization is required to achieve or improve comparability of the putatively equivalent measures collected by different studies on different individuals. Although the characteristics of the research initiatives generating and using harmonized data vary extensively, all are confronted by similar issues. Having to collate, understand, process, host, and co-analyze data from individual cohort studies is particularly challenging. The scientific success and timely management of projects can be facilitated by an ensemble of factors. The current document provides an overview of the ‘life course’ of research projects requiring harmonization of existing data and highlights key elements to be considered from the inception to the end of the project.

Falls among community-dwelling seniors constitute a major public health concern because of the potential morbidity and mortality associated with the fall. This study examined the informal care networks accessed by Canadian seniors who had visited the Emergency Department as a result of a fall, and considered the implications of the processes of asking for and receiving help on the senior's identity. Four themes were identified. The first was valuing independence. The remaining three themes concerned threats to the participants' identities linked to the need to ask for or receive help from family and friends. They were: becoming indebted, feeling devalued and becoming a burden to others. Seniors were noted to excuse family members from the expectation of helping because of work and family commitments, and illness. Participants described a mutually beneficial relationship with friends wherein both parties valued their independence and provided assistance to the other when needed. Their comments suggested that assistance was viewed as a good to be traded among peers. Our findings indicate that seniors value their independence and may not seek help even when it appears to be available, if asking threatens valued identities. Health and social care practitioners and policy makers responsible for planning and delivery of services should take this into account in order to ensure the best possible care for injured community-dwelling seniors.

Canadians are living longer, and older persons are making up a larger share of the population (14% in 2006, projected to rise to 20% by 2021). The Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) is a national longitudinal study of adult development and aging that will recruit 50,000 Canadians aged 45 to 85 years of age and follow them for at least 20 years. All participants will provide a common set of information concerning many aspects of health and aging, and 30,000 will undergo an additional in-depth examination coupled with the donation of biological specimens (blood and urine). The CLSA will become a rich data source for the study of the complex interrelationship among the biological, physical, psychosocial, and societal factors that affect healthy aging.

Biological specimen collection is an integral part of many longitudinal epidemiological studies. It is important to achieve high participant satisfaction for continuing involvement, and high sample quality for accurate biomarker measurement. We conducted a study to evaluate these issues on the sample collection proposed for the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA). There were 85 participants recruited, and 65 attended either a hospital laboratory or private laboratory. Approximately 100 mL of blood and a random urine specimen were collected from each participant for a total of 2,108 sample aliquots. Quality standards were met for more than 90 per cent of samples and were similar for samples collected in both laboratories. More than 90 per cent of participants rated satisfaction with the collection as being good or excellent, and 84 per cent would be willing to repeat the collection in one to three years.

Standard clinical diagnostic procedures are often inappropriate and frequently not feasible to apply in population-based studies, yet ascertaining accurate disease status is essential. We conducted a systematic review to identify algorithms, criteria, and tools used to ascertain 17 chronic diseases, and assessed the feasibility of developing algorithms for the CLSA. Of the 29,616 citations screened, 668 papers met all inclusion criteria. We determined that the information included in a disease algorithm will differ by condition type. The diagnosis of some symptomatic conditions, such as osteoarthritis and arthritis, will require substantiation by clinical criteria (e.g., x-rays, bone density measurement) while other conditions, such as depression, will rely solely on self-report. Asymptomatic conditions, such as hypertension, are more difficult to ascertain by self-report and will require additional physiologic measures (e.g., blood pressure) as well as laboratory measures (e.g., glucose). This pilot study identified the tools necessary to develop disease ascertainment algorithms.

Une des clés au succès de l’Étude longitudinale canadienne sur le vieillissement (ÉLCV) sera de tirer profit des sources de données secondaires, en particulier données relatives à l’utilisation des soins de santé (USS). Pour examiner les aspects pratiques, méthodologiques et éthiques d’accéder à des données sur l’USS, des entrevues qualitatives individuelles ont été réalisés auprès de 53 administrateurs de données et commissaires/ombudsman à la protection de la vie privée à travers le Canada. Les participants de l’étude ont indiqué que d’obtenir la permission d’accéder à des données sur l’USS est généralement possible; cependant, ils ont noté que ce processus sera complexe et long, exigeant des travaux préparatoires considérables et méticuleux afin de s’assurer que la documentation soit appropriée et que le tout soit conforme aux variations juridiques ainsi qu’aux lignes, législatives et politiques.