Need Help?
Copied to clipboard!

Framingham Cohort

Origins and Research Mission

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death and serious illness in the United States. In 1948, the National Heart Institute (now the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NHLBI) launched the Framingham Heart Study to identify common factors contributing to cardiovascular disease (CVD), which had become a leading cause of death in the United States. Researchers recruited 5,209 men and women (ages 30–62) from Framingham, Massachusetts who had not yet developed overt CVD symptoms to follow prospectively over time through detailed physical examinations and lifestyle interviews.

Study Population and Longitudinal Follow-up

The original cohort was followed for over 75 years with 32 exams completed. To extend the study's reach across generations and represent the changing demographics of the Framingham community, additional cohorts were enrolled: the Offspring cohort (5,124 adult children and spouses of original participants, enrolled 1971, 10 exams to date); the Third Generation cohort (4,095 grandchildren, enrolled 2002, 4 exams to date); and two ethnically diverse Omni cohorts (506 and 410 individuals of African American, Hispanic, Asian, Indian, Native American, and Pacific Islander descent, enrolled 1995 and 2002, respectively, with 5 and 4 exams to date). Additionally, 102 spouses of Offspring participants (New Offspring Spouse cohort) were enrolled in 2002 with 4 exams completed. Across all cohorts, in-person examinations occur at varying intervals (every 2 years for the Original cohort; roughly every 4–7 years for other cohorts) and consist of detailed medical history, physical examination, and laboratory testing.

Comprehensive Phenotypic Data

Over decades of careful monitoring, FHS research has generated extensive phenotypic data spanning multiple domains: cardiovascular risk factors and biomarkers (blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL, smoking, obesity, diabetes, physical inactivity); subclinical vascular disease detected through advanced imaging (echocardiography, carotid ultrasound, cardiac and aortic CT, brain and cardiac MRI); clinical outcomes (coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure, intermittent claudication); and chronic conditions beyond CVD (osteoporosis, arthritis, nutritional status, eye disease, hearing disorders, chronic obstructive lung disease, stroke, and dementia including Alzheimer's disease). To view the phenotype variables collected from the Framingham Cohort, please click on the "Variables" tab above.

Genetic and Genomic Resources

Large-scale genotyping and sequencing projects have been conducted across all FHS cohorts, reflecting advances in genomic technology over time—progressing from microsatellite markers and candidate gene studies to exome chips, GWAS chips, exome, targeted, and whole-genome sequencing. Coverage varies by analysis type and cohort as the research portfolio has evolved. Additionally, mRNA and miRNA expression data, DNA methylation, RNA sequencing, metabolomics, proteomics, and other omics data are available, providing complementary molecular phenotypes for research across the full range of FHS phenotypic domains spanning decades of longitudinal data.

The Framingham Cohort is utilized in the following dbGaP substudies. To view genotypes, analysis, expression data, other molecular data, and derived variables collected in these substudies, please click on the following substudies below or in the "Substudies" section of this top-level study page phs000007 Framingham Cohort.

The unflagging commitment of the research participants in the NHLBI FHS has made more than a half century of research success possible. For decades, the FHS has made its data and DNA widely available to qualified investigators throughout the world through the Limited Access Datasets and the FHS DNA Committee, and the SHARe database will continue that tradition by allowing access to qualified investigators who agree to the requirements of data access. With the SHARe database, we continue with an ambitious research agenda and look forward to new discoveries in the decades to come.