Highlights
- •InterLACE is an international collaboration of 20 observational studies across 10 countries.
- •Harmonized individual-level data on reproductive health and chronic disease are available from 230,000 women.
- •The prevalence of diabetes and cardiovascular disease among mid-aged women were 5% and 7% at the end of study follow-up, respectively.
- •InterLACE enables a detailed review of methodologies currently used in the field of women’s health.
Abstract
Objectives
The International Collaboration for a Life Course Approach to Reproductive Health
and Chronic Disease Events (InterLACE) project is a global research collaboration
that aims to advance understanding of women’s reproductive health in relation to chronic
disease risk by pooling individual participant data from several cohort and cross-sectional
studies. The aim of this paper is to describe the characteristics of contributing
studies and to present the distribution of demographic and reproductive factors and
chronic disease outcomes in InterLACE.
Study design
InterLACE is an individual-level pooled study of 20 observational studies (12 of which
are longitudinal) from ten countries. Variables were harmonized across studies to
create a new and systematic synthesis of life-course data.
Main outcome measures
Harmonized data were derived in three domains: 1) socio-demographic and lifestyle
factors, 2) female reproductive characteristics, and 3) chronic disease outcomes (cardiovascular
disease (CVD) and diabetes).
Results
InterLACE pooled data from 229,054 mid-aged women. Overall, 76% of the women were
Caucasian and 22% Japanese; other ethnicities (of 300 or more participants) included
Hispanic/Latin American (0.2%), Chinese (0.2%), Middle Eastern (0.3%), African/black
(0.5%), and Other (1.0%). The median age at baseline was 47 years (Inter-quartile
range (IQR): 41–53), and that at the last follow-up was 56 years (IQR: 48–64). Regarding
reproductive characteristics, half of the women (49.8%) had their first menstruation
(menarche) at 12–13 years of age. The distribution of menopausal status and the prevalence
of chronic disease varied considerably among studies. At baseline, most women (57%)
were pre- or peri-menopausal, 20% reported a natural menopause (range 0.8–55.6%) and
the remainder had surgery or were taking hormones. By the end of follow-up, the prevalence
rates of CVD and diabetes were 7.2% (range 0.9–24.6%) and 5.1% (range 1.3–13.2%),
respectively.
Conclusions
The scale and heterogeneity of InterLACE data provide an opportunity to strengthen
evidence concerning the relationships between reproductive health through life and
subsequent risks of chronic disease, including cross-cultural comparisons.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 04, 2016
Accepted:
July 28,
2016
Received in revised form:
July 28,
2016
Received:
June 30,
2016
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
