Objectives

The main objectives are to:

• build up, maintain and yearly extend the first nationwide cohort
• to offer other cohorts and clinical databases expertise in record linkage and information on socio-economic status

This will be achieved by:

• extending follow-up by periodically updating the database with the latest available mortality and migration files, using automated record linkage procedures
• developing measures of socio-economic status that are tailored to the Swiss context
• developing and implementing procedures that allow the creation of well defined subcohorts to address specific research questions
• developing and implementing procedures to swiftly identify deaths among participants lost to follow up in other prospective cohort studies