Available Data

SIMPLER contains several types of data collected through questionnaires, clinical examinations, biological sampling, and national register linkages.

More data are added continuously. Below is a brief description of data.

If you have questions or need exact numbers, for example when preparing applications, you are welcome to contact the SIMPLER Office.

Questionnaire data

Questionnaires on health, diet, and lifestyle have been sent to participants on several occasions, starting in 1987 for women and in 1997 for men, with the most recent follow-up in 2019.

Detailed information on questionnaire items and variables is available on the Questionnaires and Variable Lists pages. The variable lists include both original variables and derived variables related to lifestyle, nutrient intake, and energy intake, as well as suggestions for merging variables when appropriate.

In total, more than 100,000 individuals have responded since the beginning of the cohorts, with attrition over time due to aging and mortality.

Health examination data

Health examination data xlsx, 350 kB. include biometric measurements such as height, upper-arm, waist, hip, and calf circumferences, as well as sagittal abdominal diameter. Additional measurements include blood pressure, glucose levels, iron levels, and body composition assessed using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) or bioelectrical impedance analysis.

Blood samples collected during health examination visits at the research clinic have been analysed for common clinical chemistry variables, xlsx, 312 kB.including blood lipid levels and C-reactive protein (CRP). Participants also complete a brief cognitive test and several functional performance tests.

In conjunction with the health examination visit, the participants fill in a questionnaire containing diet and lifestyle questions covering the past month xlsx, 245 kB. (in comparison to the questionnaires in Swedish Mammography Cohort (SMC) and Cohort of Swedish Men (COSM) covering the past year), as well as a 1-day food diary.

Health examination data are available for approximately 12,800 participants, with varying coverage across variables. More detailed information on variable availability is currently under development. Researchers interested in these data are welcome to contact the SIMPLER Office for further information.

Register data

The cohorts are annually linked to several national registers maintained by the National Board of Health and Welfare, including the National Patient Register, Cause of Death Register, Prescribed Drug Register, and Cancer Register, for a selected number of variables.

SIMPLER also has ethical approval to link cohort data to additional national registers if required for specific research projects.

Register data provide complete coverage for all cohort participants.

Genome profile

Two types of genome profiles are available:

• Infinium Global Screening Array (Illumina)
• Infinium OncoArray (Illumina)

The Global Screening Array includes approximately 41,000 genetic profiles. After excluding non-European ancestry individuals and related participants, approximately 37,000 profiles remain available for analysis.

The OncoArray dataset contains approximately 8,000 profiles.

Proteome profile

Proteomic analyses have been conducted using Olink Target 96 panels, including CVD II, CVD III and metabolism, provided by Olink Proteomics.

These analyses were performed on lithium-heparin plasma samples collected during the first health examination visit. Proteome profiles are available for approximately 12,500 participants from the clinical subcohort (cycle 1 in Uppsala and Västerås).

Metabolome profile

• HPLC/MS

Untargeted metabolite profiling of lithium-heparin plasma samples has been conducted at the Rikard Landberg Laboratory,

Untargeted metabolite profiling of lithium-heparin plasma samples has been conducted at the Rikard Landberg Lab, Chalmers University of Technology, using HPLC/MS.

Approximately 5,000 unidentified compounds are currently available as a matrix with peak information, and a reference library for 200–250 biomarkers is being developed.

Metabolomic profiles are available for approximately 13,000 participants from the first health examination visit (cycle 1 in Uppsala and Västerås).

• NMR

Serum samples have also been analysed by Nightingale Health, Finland using NMR-based metabolomics, measuring approximately 250 metabolites xlsx, 17 kB. (excel-file) and metabolite ratios.

These data include approximately 14,500 samples from nearly 13,000 participants from the first health examination visit, and approximately 1,800 samples from participants attending the second visit (cycle 2) in Uppsala.

Metagenome profile

Shotgun metagenomic sequencing of the gut microbiome has been performed by the Centre for Translational Microbiome Research, Karolinska Institutet, using DNBseq technology (BGI).

Microbiome profiles are available for approximately 6,000 participants, representing roughly half of the clinical subcohort.

Microbial sequences have been computationally analysed using both MetaPhlAn4 and CHAMP (CM HumAn Microbiome Profiler 2.0, Clinical Microbiomics). A database containing species-level abundance profiles is available.