Background

The Mexico City Prospective Study (MCPS) is the largest blood-based prospective study of the health of a Latin-American population. The study offers an opportunity to investigate how social, lifestyle, physical, metabolic and genetic factors influence the major causes of death in Mexican adults in a large cohort that has already been followed for two decades.

Between 1998 and 2004, over 150,000 middle-aged adults including 100,000 women from the Coyoacán and Iztapalapa districts of Mexico City were recruited. They gave information about their lifestyle and disease history, had physical measurements taken, such as blood pressure, weight, waist and hip circumference, and provided blood samples.

A resurvey of 10,000 surviving participants was completed between 2015 and 2019. It captured how lifestyles, physical and biological measurements and treatments for disease had changed over time. This allowed us to better assess how factors including blood pressure and smoking are related to premature death. We also collected urine samples and additional information such as bioimpedance (providing measures of body fat) and cognitive function.

A follow up health survey is currently collecting information on major non-fatal diseases by house-to-house field work.

Using blood samples we have genotyped and exome sequenced all participants. We have also compiled metabolomic data including cholesterol fractions and triglycerides for all participants at baseline and those who provided a blood sample at resurvey. All participants are tracked for mortality through linkage to Mexican national mortality records. By mid 2022 about 30,000 were confirmed to have died.