Skip to main content
. 2022 Aug 13;52(2):e137–e151. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyac156

Core questionnaire (n = 225 620)

  • Socio-demographic: date of birth, sex, ethnicity, education level, employment status, occupation, income, marital status

  • Family history: family characteristics, family history of cancer and other major diseases

  • Health status: self-rated health status, history of cancer and other diseases, reproductive history, prescribed medications, health-seeking behaviour (i.e. routine medical checkups, dental checkups, cancer screening)

  • Behavioural factors: alcohol, smoking, physical activity (International Physical Activity Questionnaire—Short Form), sleep, diet (fruit and vegetable servings per day)

  • Environmental factors: current residential address, environmental tobacco smoke, sun exposure, current occupation and shift work

  • Self-reported anthropometry: height, weight, waist and hip circumference

Physical measurements (n = 12 818)

  • Anthropometry: standing and sitting height, weight, body fat (bioimpedance), waist and hip circumference

  • Blood pressure and heart rate

  • Grip strength: right and left hand grip strength

  • MRI of the brain, neck vessels, heart and abdomen (n ∼ 3100)

  • Sleep and circadian function: home-based ambulatory actigraphy, overnight home-based respiratory monitoring (n ∼ 4000)

Follow-up questionnaires (n = 47 772)

  • Updates to core questionnaire

  • Cancer treatment

  • Marijuana use, e-cigarette use

  • Work history: type of job, physical demands, exposure to hazardous materials, commuting characteristics, psychosocial environment (n = 33 782)

Biological samples

  • Venous blood: aliquots: serum, plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells or whole blood in dimethyl sulfoxide or separated (n = 40 034), lymphocytes in dimethyl sulfoxide (n ∼ 6000), urine (n = 12 600), blood spots (n = 9956)

Lab values (n = 32 684)

  • Interpretive variables (e.g. time of last meal), glycated haemoglobin, complete blood count, cytokine panels (n = 1400)

Ecologic environmental measurements (n = 225 620)

  • Greenness: vegetation indices, growing season

  • Neighbourhood: active living environments, night-time light, material and social deprivation index, marginalization index, access to employment, proximity to roads and water bodies, gentrification, urban interventions, and equity, green roads, urban sprawl, building density, public transportation, noise

  • Air quality: ozone (O3), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), smoke exposure (PM2.5)

  • Weather: climate metrics, water balance metrics, local climate zone

Administrative health data (n = 188 351)

  • Ontario Cancer Registry (OCR), Registered Persons Database (RPDB), Discharge Abstract Database (DAD), National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NACRS), all-causes mortality file from the Registrar General, primary care data, physician billing claims (OHIP) data, ICES-derived cohorts of chronic conditions, the Canadian Organ Replacement Register (CORR), the Ontario Laboratories Information System (OLIS), screening programs 

COVID-19 data (n = 42 145)

  • Clinical factors: COVID-19 test status and date, symptoms, outcomes, underlying health conditions, medication use

  • Exposures: travel, family/household exposure, contact with a case

  • Psychosocial and socio-economic factors

  • Vaccination status, vaccine products and dates received

  • Select job classifications

  • Blood spots and serial anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels (n = 9956)

Genotyping/sequencing (n = 9600; ongoing activity)