The Norwegian MoBa study is one of several contributions to EARNEST, the Early Nutrition Programming Project. The project is an international EU collaboration comprising researchers from 38 institutions in 16 European countries. With a broad approach, EARNEST is attempting to discover the long-term effects of early nutrition to illness later in life. The EU is financing the project with a contribution of 13 million Euro.
Using data from MoBa
In Norway, EARNEST is a subproject of MoBa and will be utilising data from the study. Professor Per Magnus from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health is in charge of Norway’s contribution to EARNEST. He will investigate the relationship between genes, foetal growth and risk of illness in adults.
Data from the MoBa cohort of 100 000 pregnant women, their partners and children is the foundation for the research in EARNEST. MoBa participants fill in detailed questionnaires from conception onward, including data on the mother’s nutritional habits. This information will be linked with other data from the MoBa contributors, e.g. blood samples, urine samples, DNA samples and data from ultrasound examinations. Ultrasound provides data on foetal size, which can be compared to newborn weight.
Professor Magnus states that by linking the data from MoBa we will be able to state what is attributable to genes and what is caused by environment. We will study different subgroups of the 100 000 pregnant women, for example, compare the ones with particularly low birth weights to the ones with high birth weights. Low birth weight is defined as 2 500 grams or less, while high birth weight is above 4 500 grams.
A broad study
EARNEST uses a broad and multi-disciplinary approach to find out what kind of long-term consequences early nutrition may have on later illness. The study aims to:
- Discover the connection between early nutrition and later cardiovascular disease risk, diabetes, immunodefense, allergies, bone mineral health, cognitive capacity and cancer
- Identify critical periods for the development of illness later in life
- Examine the role of genes
- Understand the roles played by particular kinds of food, and the contribution of the mother’s nutritional habits
- Develop new strategies for treatment and prevention
- Examine the connection between people’s knowledge of nutrition and how this knowledge influences their behaviour
- Examine the economic consequences of introducing programmes in early nutrition
The German professor Berthold Koletzko at the Children`s Hospital at the University of Munich is in charge of the entire project, starting in 2005 and lasting until 2010.