Biobank and Lifestyle Data Provide Opportunities to Study Development and Progression of Type 2 Diabetes
Problem statement
Biobank of Eastern Finland (BBEF) and researchers from the Clinical Nutrition Unit at the University of Eastern Finland created and piloted a new model to collect and integrate lifestyle data digitally into the clinical patient register data at BBEF. The model was piloted by re-contacting 497 BBEF participants with type 2 (T2D) or/and gestational (GDM) diabetes to provide information about the usability of biobank data in biomedical research focusing on the development and progression of T2D.
Study population and methods
Initially, the study population consisted 540 BBEF male and female participants: 440 individuals with T2D, 98 with GDM and 2 with both T2D and GDM/diabetes in pregnancy. Finally, 497 of those were re-contacted. The study aimed to recognize known biomolecular, physiological and lifestyle factors associated with T2D in the combined biobank and lifestyle data.
Clinical biobank data contained laboratory measurements (n=30,261) over the last 13 years, and BMI (n=1,343) and blood pressure (n=6,265) measurements over the last 9 years, 80-90 % of those from the last 3-5 years.
Outcomes
Information retrieval from the biobank database and re-contacting of BBEF participants succeeded. The electronic lifestyle questionnaire and connection of the lifestyle data to the biobank data were technically successful. Several T2D-associated biomarkers, obesity and some lifestyle-related risk factors, like unfavorable quality of dietary fats and low consumption of fruits and vegetables, were recognized in the combined biobank and lifestyle data. Due to the low participation activity (11%), lifestyle factors could not be properly studied. Thus, more effective ways to collect lifestyle data are needed.
Obesity emerged as the main disease-related factor in both T2D and GDM patients. On average, over 80% of patients were overweight or obese (BMI >25 kg/m2). Predictive changes in HbA1c, and fasting plasma glucose and HDL cholesterol concentrations were seen in GDM patients after 6 years from the pregnancy indicating the development of prediabetes and T2D.
“This study illustrated the potential of biobank data for studying biomolecular background and progression of complex diseases. Biobanks have real-life data of an increasing variety of diseases and individual timelines of clinical measurements and incidents. Apart from the clinical data, biobanks also have collections of various biological samples and genome information, which will be increased in the near future.
Additionally, the possibility to re-contact individuals for further studies enables collecting and using even more extensive information on well-being. At BBEF, more than 92% of consent-givers have agreed on re-contacting. This pilot study showed also how additional e-questionnaires can easily and safely be used on adding health-related data to existing BBEF data.
BBEF uses North Savo Data Lake to ensure data safety and protection of sensitive data. BBEF also belongs to Kuopio health, an open innovation ecosystem, a network that is committed to promoting well-being, food and health technology know-how, research, business and health awareness.”
– Professor Arto Mannermaa, Research Manager, Vice Leader at Biobank of Eastern Finland