Scientific research ActiveLIFE

Setting

ActiveLIFE will be performed in collaboration with the Lifelines Biobank: a large, multigenerational, population-based cohort study in the Netherlands that includes over 167,000 participants who will be followed for at least 30 years to obtain insight into (healthy) ageing and disease development. For this purpose, data are being collected with questionnaires, physical examinations, and bio samples since 2006. Given the broad collection of health-related parameters, its large sample size, deep phenotyping, and diversity, the Lifelines cohort is considered a unique international resource for high-quality and high-impact studies.

The 4^th Lifelines assessment wave commenced mid-2024 and targets to measure 70,000 to 80,000 individuals within 5 years. Participants will visit the local Lifelines research center twice, separated by a time-window of 1-2 weeks. For ActiveLIFE, an accelerometer will be placed on the participant’s thigh during the first visit. Subsequently, the participant will wear the waterproof and nonobtrusive thigh-worn accelerometer for eight consecutive days to objectively and accurately assess physical (in)activity patterns. Raw data will be extracted and processed to generate a comprehensive set of 24-hour lifestyle behavior characteristics. Subsequently, we will enrich these data with prospective information on health outcomes (e.g. incident diseases and cause-specific mortality).

Measurements

We anticipate to perform 60,000 accelerometer measurements in participants of the Lifelines Biobank study. Simultaneous assessment of thigh-worn and wrist-worn accelerometry measurements will be performed in ≈6,000 participants. During their visit to the Lifelines research center, participants will undergo an extensive testing battery, including body composition, blood / urine / feces biomarkers, cognition, pulmonary function, physical function, and electrocardiography assessment as part of their enrolment in Lifelines. Following eight days of objective, habitual physical (in)activity assessment, the accelerometer will be returned, and raw data will be extracted, undergo quality control, and will be processed to produce aggregated outcomes for the Lifelines data catalogue.